I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 989 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require certain 
online platforms which display political advertisements to display with 
the advertisement a notice identifying the sponsor of the advertisement 
and to ensure that the notice will continue to be presented in the 
advertisement if a viewer of the advertisement shares the advertisement 
with others on that platform. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 11, 2021 
Mr. GOLDEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 
require certain online platforms which display political 
advertisements to display with the advertisement a notice 
identifying the sponsor of the advertisement and to en-
sure that the notice will continue to be presented in 
the advertisement if a viewer of the advertisement shares 
the advertisement with others on that platform. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
04:14 Mar 06, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H989.IH
H989
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Consistent Labeling 
for Political Ads Act’’. 
SEC. 2. REQUIRING ONLINE PLATFORMS TO DISPLAY NO-
TICES IDENTIFYING SPONSORS OF POLIT-
ICAL ADVERTISEMENTS AND TO ENSURE NO-
TICES CONTINUE TO BE PRESENT WHEN AD-
VERTISEMENTS ARE SHARED. 
(a) REQUIREMENT.—Section 304 of the Federal 
Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(j) ENSURING DISPLAY AND SHARING OF SPONSOR 
IDENTIFICATION
IN
ONLINE
POLITICAL
ADVERTISE-
MENTS.— 
‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.— An online platform dis-
playing a qualified political advertisement shall— 
‘‘(A) display with the advertisement a visi-
ble notice identifying the sponsor of the adver-
tisement (or, if it is not practical for the plat-
form to display such a notice, a notice that the 
advertisement is sponsored by a person other 
than the platform); and 
‘‘(B) ensure that the notice will continue to 
be displayed if a viewer of the advertisement 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
04:14 Mar 06, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H989.IH
H989
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
shares the advertisement with others on that 
platform. 
‘‘(2) DEFINITIONS.— 
‘‘(A) ONLINE
PLATFORM.—For purposes 
of this subsection, the term ‘online platform’ 
means any public-facing website, web applica-
tion, or digital application (including a social 
network, ad network, or search engine) which— 
‘‘(i) sells qualified political advertise-
ments; and 
‘‘(ii) has 50,000,000 or more unique 
monthly United States visitors or users for 
a majority of months during the preceding 
12 months. 
‘‘(B) QUALIFIED
POLITICAL
ADVERTISE-
MENT.—For purposes of this subsection, the 
term ‘qualified political advertisement’ means 
any advertisement (including search engine 
marketing, display advertisements, video adver-
tisements, native advertisements, and sponsor-
ships) that— 
‘‘(i) is made by or on behalf of a can-
didate; or 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
04:14 Mar 06, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H989.IH
H989
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
‘‘(ii) communicates a message relating 
to any political matter of national impor-
tance, including— 
‘‘(I) a candidate; 
‘‘(II) any election to Federal of-
fice; or 
‘‘(III) a national legislative issue 
of public importance.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to advertisements 
displayed on or after the 120-day period which begins on 
the date of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
04:14 Mar 06, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H989.IH
H989
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS