Democracy 21 endorses Honest Ads Act introduced today by Sens. Klobuchar, Warner, McCain to expose and limit foreign intervention in US Elections

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Democracy 21 Endorses Honest Ads Act Introduced Today by Senators Klobuchar, Warner and McCain to Expose and Limit Foreign Intervention in Future U.S. Elections

Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer

Democracy 21 strongly supports the Honest Ads Act, bipartisan legislation introduced today by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mark Warner (D-VA) and John McCain (R-AZ).

The Honest Ads Act is designed to prevent foreign interference in future elections and improve the transparency of online political ads.  The Act follows the unprecedented efforts undertaken by Russia to intervene in and manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The legislation requires digital platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to make new disclosures available to the public regarding political ads that run on their platforms. The legislation also places new responsibilities on the platforms to make reasonable efforts to prevent foreign nationals from purchasing political ads.

In order to address the cyber-attacks on our country by Russia, new rules are required to expose the activities of Russia and any other foreign interest attempting to undermine the integrity of our elections and damage our democracy.

Democracy 21 applauds Senators Klobuchar, Warner and McCain for the critical national leadership they are providing to prevent Russia and other foreign interests from sabotaging our elections.

Democracy 21 also applauds Representatives Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Mike Coffman (R-CO) for their critical national leadership in introducing the Honest Ads Act in the House.

Platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter also have a major role to play in addressing this fundamental problem for the nation. These platforms have a responsibility to the country to apply their technological expertise to police their own platforms and help protect future elections from the kind of destructive, deceitful activities undertaken by Russia to undermine the integrity of the last presidential election.

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