Washington state Attorney General Ferguson sues Google again
Google appears to be in hot water again, and the Washington state Attorney General is looking to hold them accountable.
AG Bob Ferguson filed a second campaign finance lawsuit against Google this week for unlawfully failing to maintain key information regarding state political ads that it sold, and failing to provide that information to individuals who requested it.
The lawsuit asserts that Google failed to maintain the information required by state law for hundreds of Washington political ads. Due to Google’s lack of control in maintaining the information, it is currently unknown how many total Washington political ads it provided since June 4, 2018, which includes those purchased by at least 57 campaigns or committees.
This is not the first time Ferguson has taken on tech giants.
Ferguson filed a similar campaign finance lawsuit against Facebook in April 2020. The lawsuit asserts that, similar to Google, Facebook repeatedly violated campaign finance laws since Ferguson’s first campaign finance lawsuit against Facebook in 2018.
Ferguson’s June 2018 lawsuit against Google was resolved in December 2018 with the company paying $217,000 — a $200,000 penalty and an additional $17,000 to reimburse the state’s legal costs and fees.
“I take repeat violations of our campaign finance laws very seriously,” Ferguson said in a statement.
“Google is one of the largest corporations in the world, and should be able to figure out how to follow our campaign finance laws. Washingtonians demanded transparency in their elections. My office will honor the will of the people and continue enforcing the law to ensure our elections are fair and transparent.”
Specific rules were adopted in November 2019 when it comes to digital political advertisers. The information that Google and other commercial advertisers are required to maintain and make publicly available includes:
The name of the candidate or measure supported or opposed;
The dates the advertiser provided the service;
The name and address of the person or committee who sponsored the advertising
The name of the person or organization who purchased the ad (which can be the same as the sponsor, or a different organization, such as an advertising agency);
The total cost of the advertising; and
Method of payment used to purchase the ad.
This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Washington state Attorney General Ferguson sues Google again."
