In addition to nearly $25 million (nearly Rs. 200 crore) penalties for persistent and willful violations of campaign finance disclosure requirements, Washington State has ordered Facebook’s parent corporation, Meta, to pay $10.5 million (almost Rs. 86 crore) in legal fees.
The legal-fee order was given by King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North on Friday, two days after he imposed what is thought to be the highest campaign financing fine in US history on the social media giant, according to The Seattle Times.
The corporation has 30 days to send payment to North via wire transfer, check, or money order. The state Public Disclosure Commission, which upholds regulations governing political funding, will get the funds.
For more than 800 infractions of Washington’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, which voters passed in 1972 and the Legislature later tightened, North levied the maximum penalties permitted. The maximum, according to Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, was justified in light of the fact that Facebook was previously sued by his agency for breaking the same statute in 2018.
The Menlo Park, California-based Meta did not immediately reply to a request for comment through email, according to the newspaper.
The business had previously stated that it was weighing its options in light of the decision.
According to Washington’s transparency law, ad vendors like Meta are required to keep track of and make public the names and addresses of people who purchase political advertisements as well as the target audience, method of payment, and the total number of views for each ad. Anyone who asks it must receive the information from ad sellers. Newspapers and television networks have consistently abided by the law.
But Meta has consistently protested the regulations, claiming in court that they “unduly burden political speech” and are “nearly hard to completely comply with,” making them unlawful. Facebook does retain a record of the political advertisements that are placed on its site, but the record does not contain all of the information that is required by Washington’s statute.
Following the initial complaint filed by Ferguson, Facebook consented to pay $238,000 (almost Rs 2 crore) and made a commitment to transparency in political advertising and campaign fundraising. It subsequently declared that rather than follow the rules, it will discontinue selling political advertisements in the state.
Ferguson filed a second lawsuit in 2020 when the corporation persisted in selling political advertisements.
One of the richest corporations in the world, Meta, announced earnings for the three months that ended September 30 of over $28 billion (about Rs. 2,30,400 crore), or $1.64 (roughly Rs. 130) per share, for a total of $4.4 billion (roughly Rs. 36,200 crores), or approximately Rs. 130 per share.
