Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed legislation on Saturday that will penalize social media influencers who do not properly disclose paid political content posted on the internet.
The state has required the disclosures for paid posts about state- and local-level campaigns since 2023, but until now, content creators couldn’t be fined or prosecuted if they failed to comply. Now, California campaign finance regulators are empowered to impose fines on influencers of up to $5,000 for each violation or to refer those violations to law enforcement as potential misdemeanors.
Politicians and advocacy groups are increasingly turning to influencers as a way to reach younger, more online audiences and, in some cases, are paying them for their support. But unlike traditional campaign advertising on television or billboards, there are no federal requirements to disclose payments for social media posts.
Texas also mandates the disclosure of paid political content online, and lawmakers in Congress as well as in other states, including New York, are considering similar regulations. The California law was one of 13 bills focused on social media and elections that Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, signed as a package on Saturday.
Assemblyman Marc Berman, a Democrat, said he decided to introduce the bill after seeing media reports that politicians were quietly funneling money to influencers during California’s heated primary for governor this spring.
One candidate, the billionaire Tom Steyer, a Democrat, paid dozens of creators to post favorably about his campaign on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Reddit, but many of them did not initially include a written disclosure on their social media postings.
That led to multiple complaints being filed to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission against the Steyer campaign, as well as at least one against his chief rival, Xavier Becerra, who went on to win the primary. Mr. Becerra will face Steve Hilton, a Republican, in November.
“I was hearing from people in the campaign world that there’s this new strategy of paying political influencers to post content and that some were good about disclosure and others were a bit fast and loose,” Mr. Berman said in an interview. “I realized there was a bit of ambiguity about the law and how it’s enforced.”
The Fair Political Practices Commission opened an investigation into Mr. Steyer’s campaign in May. Earlier this week, it closed that inquiry, saying that Mr. Steyer had properly notified the influencers of their statutory requirements around disclosure and “then reminded the influencers when posts were discovered without the disclaimer.” Another investigation into Steyer’s campaign is pending.
