For years, a loophole in Texas election rules has prevented social media users from having to label the political content they are paid for.
However, the state’s election watchdog effectively closed that loophole Tuesday afternoon when state ethics commissioners voted unanimously to approve a rule requiring influencers to publicly disclose paid posts and videos as political ads.
The Texas Ethics Commission’s rule change comes after a Texas Tribune report in August found that a shadowy campaign consulting group deployed a network of online influencers to defend the Texas attorney general Ken Paxton on social media ahead of an impeachment trial, the state’s top lawyer was confronted on corruption charges.
The company, Influenceable LLC, paid Gen Z social media users on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms to share posts questioning the legitimacy of the impeachment inquiry and to accuse Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who is investigating the House to Paxton’s approval, accusing him of being an alcoholic. , the Tribune reports. The ads reached millions of followers, the Tribune found.
Influenceable markets itself as a company for “brands, organizations and campaigns in the anti-woke economy.” Ultimately, Paxton, who was impeached by the House of Representatives in May 2023, was acquitted of any wrongdoing along party lines in the Texas Senate.
The Texas Ethics Commission’s amended rule requires transparency about such transactions, requiring a person paid to promote a post or create their own video or post by a political actor to disclose it to their audience.
Texas election rules require political ads to mention the name of the individual or group that paid for them on television, in print, on radio broadcasts or online.
Previously, social media users only had to label posts as political ads if they spent more than $100 of their own money on ads within a reporting period, exempting influencers paid by outside groups to produce the content. The rule reduces that exception.
Candidates and officeholders can share unlabeled political ads as long as they clearly label their accounts with their full names, in accordance with existing rules.
At the meeting held Tuesday morning at the Capitol, Texas Ethics Commission Chairman Randall Erben, a law professor at the University of Texas, described the rule change as “an extension of our normal political disclaimer rules into the digital age.”
The commission’s general counsel, James Tinley, nodded to companies like Influenceable in his explanation of the rule update, saying: “We know that there is now a practice involving influencers who are… paid by others to deliver a message to transfer.”
He also emphasized that the change will bring the state’s rules closer to the intent of the Texas Election Code statute, which requires candidates, individuals or political action committees to label “political advertisements containing express advocacy.”
Tinley analogized social media platforms to the print media that have been available since the disclosure law was first passed in 1987.
“The idea of this is that if you pay for space in a newspaper rather than for the newspaper’s speech itself, that is ‘for consideration’ and requires a political advertising disclosure statement,” he said.
Tinley said the committee has received written comments from some members of the public concerned that this would “create an opportunity for inquiry into the ordinary views of citizens.” However, there were no vocal opponents of the rule at the meeting. One person expressed support for the new rule.
The amended rule, §26.1 of Chapter 20 on the Reporting of Political Contributions and Expenditures, will become effective upon publication in the Texas Register.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas is changing the rules for social media influencers and paid political posts
