I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4077 
To enhance transparency and accountability for online political advertisements 
by requiring those who purchase and publish such ads to disclose infor-
mation about the advertisements to the public, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 19, 2017 
Mr. KILMER (for himself and Mr. COFFMAN) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To enhance transparency and accountability for online polit-
ical advertisements by requiring those who purchase and 
publish such ads to disclose information about the adver-
tisements to the public, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Honest Ads Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 
The purpose of this Act is to enhance the integrity 
of American democracy and national security by improving 
disclosure requirements for online political advertisements 
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in order to uphold the United States Supreme Court’s 
well-established standard that the electorate bears the 
right to be fully informed. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) On January 6, 2017, the Office of the Di-
rector of National Intelligence published a report ti-
tled ‘‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in 
Recent U.S. Elections’’, noting that ‘‘Russian Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign 
in 2016 aimed at the U.S. Presidential election 
. . .’’. Moscow’s influence campaign followed a Rus-
sian messaging strategy that blends covert intel-
ligence operation—such as cyber activity—with overt 
efforts by Russian Government agencies, State-fund-
ed media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social 
media users or ‘‘trolls.’’ 
(2) On November 24, 2016, the Washington 
Post reported findings from 2 teams of independent 
researchers that concluded Russians ‘‘exploited 
American-made technology platforms to attack U.S. 
democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment . . . 
as part of a broadly effective strategy of sowing dis-
trust in U.S. democracy and its leaders.’’. 
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(3) Findings from a 2017 study on the manipu-
lation of public opinion through social media con-
ducted by the Computational Propaganda Research 
Project at the Oxford Internet Institute found that 
the Kremlin is using pro-Russian bots to manipulate 
public discourse to a highly targeted audience. With 
a sample of nearly 1,300,000 tweets, researchers 
found that in the 2016 election’s 3 decisive States, 
propaganda constituted 40 percent of the sampled 
election-related tweets that went to Pennsylvanians, 
34 percent to Michigan voters, and 30 percent to 
those in Wisconsin. In other swing States, the figure 
reached 42 percent in Missouri, 41 percent in Flor-
ida, 40 percent in North Carolina, 38 percent in 
Colorado, and 35 percent in Ohio. 
(4) On September 6, 2017, the Nation’s largest 
social media platform disclosed that between June 
2015 and May 2017, Russian entities purchased 
$100,000 in political advertisements, publishing 
roughly 3,000 ads linked to fake accounts associated 
with the Internet Research Agency, a pro-Kremlin 
organization. According to the company, the ads 
purchased focused ‘‘on amplifying divisive social and 
political messages . . .’’. 
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(5) In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform 
Act became law, establishing disclosure requirements 
for political advertisements distributed from a tele-
vision or radio broadcast station or provider of cable 
or satellite television. In 2003, the Supreme Court 
upheld regulations on electioneering communications 
established under the Act, noting that such require-
ments ‘‘provide the electorate with information and 
insure that the voters are fully informed about the 
person or group who is speaking.’’. 
(6) According to a study from Borrell Associ-
ates, in 2016, $1,415,000,000 was spent on online 
advertising, more than quadruple the amount in 
2012. 
(7) The reach of a few large internet plat-
forms—larger than any broadcast, satellite, or cable 
provider—has greatly facilitated the scope and effec-
tiveness of disinformation campaigns. For instance, 
the largest platform has over 210,000,000 American 
users—over 160,000,000 of them on a daily basis. 
By contrast, the largest cable television provider has 
22,430,000 subscribers, while the largest satellite 
television provider has 21,000,000 subscribers. And 
the most-watched television broadcast in U.S. his-
tory had 118,000,000 viewers. 
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(8) The public nature of broadcast television, 
radio, and satellite ensures a level of publicity for 
any political advertisement. These communications 
are accessible to the press, fact-checkers, and polit-
ical opponents; this creates strong disincentives for 
a candidate to disseminate materially false, inflam-
matory, or contradictory messages to the public. So-
cial media platforms, in contrast, can target portions 
of the electorate with direct, ephemeral advertise-
ments often on the basis of private information the 
platform has on individuals, enabling political adver-
tisements that are contradictory, racially or socially 
inflammatory, or materially false. 
(9) According to comScore, 2 companies own 8 
of the 10 most popular smartphone applications as 
of June 2017, including the most popular social 
media and email services—which deliver information 
and news to users without requiring proactivity by 
the user. Those same 2 companies accounted for 99 
percent of revenue growth from digital advertising in 
2016, including 77 percent of gross spending. 79 
percent of online Americans—representing 68 per-
cent of all Americans—use the single largest social 
network, while 66 percent of these users are most 
likely to get their news from that site. 
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(10) In its 2006 rulemaking, the Federal Elec-
tion Commission noted that only 18 percent of all 
Americans cited the internet as their leading source 
of news about the 2004 Presidential election; by con-
trast, the Pew Research Center found that 65 per-
cent of Americans identified an internet-based 
source as their leading source of information for the 
2016 election. 
(11) The Federal Election Commission, the 
independent Federal agency charged with protecting 
the integrity of the Federal campaign finance proc-
ess by providing transparency and administering 
campaign finance laws, has failed to take action to 
address online political advertisements. 
(12) In testimony before the Senate Select 
Committee on Intelligence titled, ‘‘Disinformation: A 
Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence 
Campaigns,’’ multiple expert witnesses testified that 
while the disinformation tactics of foreign adver-
saries have not necessarily changed, social media 
services now provide ‘‘platform[s] practically pur-
pose-built for active measures[.]’’ Similarly, as Gen. 
(RET) Keith B. Alexander, the former Director of 
the National Security Agency, testified, during the 
Cold War ‘‘if the Soviet Union sought to manipulate 
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information flow, it would have to do so principally 
through its own propaganda outlets or through ac-
tive measures that would generate specific news: 
planting of leaflets, inciting of violence, creation of 
other false materials and narratives. But the news 
itself was hard to manipulate because it would have 
required actual control of the organs of media, which 
took long-term efforts to penetrate. Today, however, 
because the clear majority of the information on so-
cial media sites is uncurated and there is a rapid 
proliferation of information sources and other sites 
that can reinforce information, there is an increasing 
likelihood that the information available to average 
consumers may be inaccurate (whether intentionally 
or otherwise) and may be more easily manipulable 
than in prior eras.’’. 
(13) Current regulations on political advertise-
ments do not provide sufficient transparency to up-
hold the public’s right to be fully informed about po-
litical advertisements made online. 
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) the dramatic increase in digital political ad-
vertisements, and the growing centrality of online 
platforms in the lives of Americans, requires the 
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Congress and the Federal Election Commission to 
take meaningful action to ensure that laws and reg-
ulations provide the accountability and transparency 
that is fundamental to our democracy; 
(2) free and fair elections require both trans-
parency and accountability which give the public a 
right to know the true sources of funding for polit-
ical advertisements in order to make informed polit-
ical choices and hold elected officials accountable; 
and 
(3) transparency of funding for political adver-
tisements is essential to enforce other campaign fi-
nance laws, including the prohibition on campaign 
spending by foreign nationals. 
SEC. 5. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF PUBLIC COMMU-
NICATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (22) of section 301 of 
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 
30101(22)) is amended by striking ‘‘or satellite commu-
nication’’ and inserting ‘‘satellite, paid internet, or paid 
digital communication’’. 
(b) TREATMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS AND EXPENDI-
TURES.—Section 301 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30101) is 
amended— 
(1) in paragraph (8)(B)— 
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(A) by striking ‘‘on broadcasting stations, 
or in newspapers, magazines, or similar types of 
general public political advertising’’ in clause 
(v) and inserting ‘‘in any public communica-
tion’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘broadcasting, newspaper, 
magazine, billboard, direct mail, or similar type 
of general public communication or political ad-
vertising’’ in clause (ix)(1) and inserting ‘‘pub-
lic communication’’; and 
(C) by striking ‘‘but not including the use 
of broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, bill-
boards, direct mail, or similar types of general 
public communication or political advertising’’ 
in clause (x) and inserting ‘‘but not including 
use in any public communication’’; and 
(2) in paragraph (9)(B)— 
(A) by striking clause (i) and inserting the 
following: 
‘‘(i) any news story, commentary, or 
editorial distributed through the facilities 
of any broadcasting station or any print, 
online, or digital newspaper, magazine, 
blog, publication, or periodical, unless such 
broadcasting, print, online, or digital facili-
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ties are owned or controlled by any polit-
ical party, political committee, or can-
didate;’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘on broadcasting stations, 
or in newspapers, magazines, or similar types of 
general public political advertising’’ in clause 
(iv) and inserting ‘‘in any public communica-
tion’’. 
(c) DISCLOSURE AND DISCLAIMER STATEMENTS.— 
Subsection (a) of section 318 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 
30120) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘financing any communication 
through any broadcasting station, newspaper, maga-
zine, outdoor advertising facility, mailing, or any 
other type of general public political advertising’’ 
and inserting ‘‘financing any public communication’’; 
and 
(2) by striking ‘‘solicits any contribution 
through any broadcasting station, newspaper, maga-
zine, outdoor advertising facility, mailing, or any 
other type of general public political advertising’’ 
and inserting ‘‘solicits any contribution through any 
public communication’’. 
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SEC. 6. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF ELECTIONEERING 
COMMUNICATION. 
(a) EXPANSION TO ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS.— 
(1) APPLICATION TO QUALIFIED INTERNET AND 
DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) of 
section 304(f)(3) of the Federal Election Cam-
paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(A)) 
is amended by striking ‘‘or satellite communica-
tion’’ each place it appears in clauses (i) and 
(ii) and inserting ‘‘satellite, or qualified internet 
or digital communication’’. 
(B) QUALIFIED
INTERNET
OR
DIGITAL 
COMMUNICATION.—Paragraph (3) of section 
304(f) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following 
new subparagraph: 
‘‘(D) QUALIFIED
INTERNET
OR
DIGITAL 
COMMUNICATION.—The term ‘qualified internet 
or digital communication’ means any commu-
nication which is placed or promoted for a fee 
on an online platform (as defined in subsection 
(j)(3)).’’. 
(2) NONAPPLICATION
OF
RELEVANT
ELEC-
TORATE
TO
ONLINE
COMMUNICATIONS.—Section 
304(f)(3)(A)(i)(III) 
of 
such 
Act 
(52 
U.S.C. 
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30104(f)(3)(A)(i)(III)) is amended by inserting ‘‘any 
broadcast, cable, or satellite’’ before ‘‘communica-
tion’’. 
(3) 
NEWS
EXEMPTION.—Section 
304(f)(3)(B)(i) 
of 
such 
Act 
(52 
U.S.C. 
30104(f)(3)(B)(i)) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(i) a communication appearing in a 
news story, commentary, or editorial dis-
tributed through the facilities of any 
broadcasting station or any online or dig-
ital newspaper, magazine, blog, publica-
tion, or periodical, unless such broad-
casting, online, or digital facilities are 
owned or controlled by any political party, 
political committee, or candidate;’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply with respect to communications 
made on or after January 1, 2018. 
SEC. 7. APPLICATION OF DISCLAIMER STATEMENTS TO ON-
LINE COMMUNICATIONS. 
(a) CLEAR AND CONSPICUOUS MANNER REQUIRE-
MENT.—Subsection (a) of section 318 of the Federal Elec-
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30120(a)) is 
amended— 
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