Regulating the Internet: More campaign finance laws...

Two U.S. congressmen Tuesday introduced legislation that builds on a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform law of 2002.

"Stand By Your Internet Ad" is a follow-up to "Stand By Your Ad," commonly known as the "I approved this message" tagline requiring candidates for federal office to take responsibility for their election ads.

Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) and David Price (D-N.C.) co-sponsored the bill, which would apply the current Stand By Your Ad requirements for radio and television ads to Internet audio and video communications as well as pre-recorded telephone calls.

The whole "I approved this message" requirement is pretty much pointless; candidates can simply outsource their negative ads to 527 organizations. Applying those requirement to the internet isn't itself terribly onerous, since it applies to campaign ads paid for by a candidate rather than the internet generally. It won't necessarily do much good or bad in that respect. But if we can get congressional action for something as silly as this, why can't we get congressional action to repeal the ~~Incumbent Protection Act~~ Campaign Finance Reform Act?

Posted on 2005-04-13 16:09:20.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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