Political Campaign Regulations in Cyberspace

1. Political Campaign Regulations in Cyberspace Team 4

2. FEC decided that online campaign activity by individuals who are not compensated are exempt from the contribution and expenditure regulations. Campaign regulations make some exceptions for news media whose presence is only online. The FEC devised a reasonable application of the law to the Net, perhaps the best that free-speech advocates could expect. FEC rules of the Internet

3. (2007) The SC ruled that the McCain - Feingold restrictions on ads during campaign periods is unconstitutional. This decision moves in the direction of protecting freedom of political speech and removes potential problems of extending campaign regulations to the Internet. FEC rules of the Internet

4. Political Campaign Regulations in Cyberspace • Web sites, official campaign blogs, and online fund raising have became standard campaign tools. • Unofficial blogs and Web sites supporting and opposing candidates proliferate.

5. The laws were written in the 1970s for media such as newspaper, television and radio. • They cover contribution limits, spending restrictions, regulations on advertisements, disclosure of information about contributors, and many detailed reporting requirements. • The supreme court had accepted contribution limits, reporting requirements, and other restrictions on political campaigns as constitutional on the argument that lack of such regulations would threaten the democratic political system.

6. Corporations, unions, and organizations avoided prohibitions on paying for ads directly supporting candidates by running so-called “issue ads” supporting a candidate implicitly.

7. McCain-Feingold aimed to restrict the use of soft money and to strengthen the restrictions on corporate and union ads by restricting issue ads. It prohibited corporations and unions from paying for television or radio ads that show a candidate’s name of face within 60 days of an election.

8. The Federal Election Comission • It interpreted the new law as designed for the media such as TV and newspapers and exempted the Internet from most of the troublesome requirements. • Bloggers worried that they would be silenced if their links or advocacy were interpreted as “in-kind” contributions limits (which in some local elections are as low as $250) • Many feared that the campaigns law would disrupt the wide-open flow of political discussion and advocacy developing on the Web.

9. Example! • In the 1990´s there were scattered attempts to apply campaign regulations on the Web. • A man had a web page satirizing the governor of his state. The governor filed a complaint against him, suggesting that he be required to identify himself on the Web site and file finantial statements.

10. More recent off-line examples show that regulations are applied in unexpected ways. • The FEC investigated four men who put up a homemade campaign sign because the sign did not say who paid for it. • When a race car driver attached a campaign sign to his car, the FEC interpreted it as an unreported campaign contribution by a corporation. Ordinary individuals who volunteer for political campaigns face investigations and heavy fines because of mistakes in following the complex laws. Complex laws tend to benefit large entities that can afford lawyers.

11. A case happened on the Web. • Two talk show hosts in Washington sate helped organize a campaign to repeal a gas tax increase. This talk show supported the campaign. Several municipalities that benefit the tax sued the campaign because they argue that the comments made by the show hosts were contribution from the radio station. So, the show hosts would have to stop talking about the initiative of campaign in the few weeks before the election. A year later, the Washington state Supreme Court reversed the decision. • One of the judges sated that with this example we are confronted with an example of abusive prosecution by several local governments. Such actual abuse and the potential for abusive application of similar laws on the Web worried those who support freedom of speech.