Watchdogs Urge FEC to Uphold Mobile Phone Ad Disclaimer Requirements & Conduct Long Overdue Rulemaking

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Democracy 21 joined the Campaign Legal Center in strongly urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to uphold federal disclaimer requirements for political advertisements on mobile phones and further pressed the agency to conduct a related rulemaking originally proposed by the FEC in 2011. 

The watchdog groups filed comments in response to the FEC’s draft Advisory Opinions 2013-18, produced in response to a request from Revolution Messaging LLC seeking an exemption from the disclaimer requirements. 

The Commission will consider multiple draft opinions at its Thursday meeting and the comments of the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 promote the adoption of Revised Draft A, which concludes that the advertisements in question do not qualify for exemptions but that certain alternative means of delivering the disclaimers is acceptable (e.g., linking to a website that contains the complete disclaimer).  The comments strongly condemned Draft B, which concludes that the ads are exempt from the disclaimer requirements, warning that its adoption would eviscerate disclaimer requirements for political ads delivered via mobile phones—a rapidly growing type of advertising.

“The use of mobile phones and other Internet applications to deliver political ads is the wave of the future,” said Donald Simon, counsel to Democracy 21.  “The disclaimer rules apply to these new technologies, and it is the job of the Commission to make the disclaimer requirements of the law work, not to throw in the towel and leave the public in the dark.  There are readily available ways to provide disclaimer information to the public, even within the confines of political ads delivered to mobile phones.  The Commission here should reject the proposal to provide a blanket exemption from the disclaimer rules for political ads delivered to mobile phones and similar new technologies, and conduct a rulemaking to provide clear guidance on how this is to be done in the future.”