(Reuters) – Twitter Inc has to pay $100,000 to Washington state’s Public Disclosure Transparency Account for multiple political campaign finance violations, the state’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson said on Tuesday.
Twitter received nearly $200,000 for campaign ads from 2012 through 2019 but failed to follow Washington state disclosure laws, the attorney general’s office said in a statement. (https://bit.ly/3nOaSkz)
The company failed to maintain the required records for at least 38 Washington candidates and committees that reported paying $194,550 for political advertising on Twitter’s platform since 2012, according to papers filed at the King County Superior Court.
“Transparency in political advertising is critical to a free and informed electorate,” Ferguson said. “Whether you are a local newspaper or a multinational social media platform, you must follow our campaign finance laws.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M. and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
