New law forces Google to suspend political ads in Washington state

It's final: the Rockstar patent case will be heard in a court near Google's headquarters in Northern California. (credit: bubbletea1)

A strict new real-time disclosure law has forced Google to suspend political advertising in the Evergreen State. "Ads related to ballot measures and state and local elections in the state of Washington, U.S.A., will not be accepted," a new Google policy says.

As Geekwire explains, the new rules were enacted by Washington state's Public Disclosure Commission to implement provisions of new campaign finance legislation that was passed in March. The rules require ad brokers like Google to provide information to the public about who is funding political ads and how those ads are being targeted. The rules also require this information to be made available as soon as ads start to run.

Google says that it intends to comply with the law, but it doesn't yet have the infrastructure to provide the required information so quickly.

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