BILL NUMBER: S2437
SPONSOR: KRUEGER
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to requiring social media
influencers to disclose when they share on social media that they are
being paid by a campaign; and authorizes the state board of elections to
promulgate certain regulations
 
PURPOSE OF THE BILL:
To ensure that campaigns that are paying social media influencers to
make posts on behalf of a campaign disclose such information.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill amends section 14-106 of the election law to include posts
made by influencers on behalf of political campaigns to be disclosed and
filed similar to other political communications.
Section 2 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
As political campaigns evolve to better engage the general public, so
should our laws. It is currently unclear in election law if payments
made to social media influencers to make posts on behalf of a campaign
would fall under activities that currently need to be reported as poli-
tical communications. Recently, an article was published about how a
candidate for office in Florida paid several social media influencers to
make posts on behalf of his campaign and supportive of his platform.
This sort of campaign activity falls within a grey area of several
State's laws on campaign disclosures. The general public should know if
a post that they are interacting with on social media is genuine, or
being made by an influencer for payment from a campaign. If a social
media influencer is making such a post, the campaign would file a
disclosure indicating such, while the influencer would be required to
include information indicating who paid for the advertisement.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24:S.4733/No Same As: Passed Senate
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None known.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after is shall have
become law.