This week, the League of Women Voters of Washington filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in the Washington Court of Appeals together with two other parties in the case of State of Washington vs. Meta Platforms, Inc. (doing business as Facebook). The State sued Meta for violating provisions of Washington’s campaign finance laws requiring disclosure of information about political ads hosted on Facebook. LWVWA took this action in support of the State of Washington because of its long-standing commitment to defending democracy and empowering voters.

Meta has appealed a trial court decision ruling that it violated the law hundreds of times and imposing a penalty of nearly $25 million. As LWVWA President Mary Coltrane stated, "The League of Women Voters calls upon the Washington State Court of Appeals to uphold the lower court ruling affirming that Meta violated our state's campaign transparency law."

Washington state law requires media platforms that host political advertising—such as Meta-owned Facebook—to retain certain information and respond to public requests about advertising. The League of Women Voters supports full disclosure of campaign finance expenditures so that voters can cast an informed ballot,” said LWVWA President Mary Coltrane. “Microtargeting unsuspecting voters with campaign ads that fail to tell who is trying to influence them harms democracy. Finding out who paid for these ads is challenging at best. Voters, and the journalists that serve them, should be able to readily access information about campaign ads.” she added.

The other parties to this amicus brief include Fix Democracy First, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy organization focused on achieving fair elections and government policies that reflect the will of the people, not the power of money. FDF has been working on campaign finance reform to expand transparency and disclose in Washington state for more than 10 years and is a long-standing partner of LWVWA, and co-host of the annual Lobby Week event. Another organization, and the one that wrote the legal brief, is Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s rights to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. The third organization is the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization that works to reform, revitalize, and when necessary, defend our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

Local League Presidents have been provided with background to help them answer questions from members, and additional information about this case is available on the LWVWA website. Please direct press calls to Lyn Whitley, lyn.whitley@lwvwa.org.