Russian Trolls Would Love the 'Honest Ads Act'

The Honest Ads Act, introduced on Thursday by Senators Mark Warner, Amy Klobuchar and John McCain to regulate political advertising on social networks and on the internet in general, would increase the regulatory burden on companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google. But it wouldn't stop Russian troll farms or any other foreign actors from continuing to use them to push politicized messages to U.S. audiences. Totally different measures would be necessary if that were indeed the goal.

Broadly, what the act does is expand the definition of "electioneering communications" to cover not just traditional media like print publications, television, radio and direct mail, but also all public forms of digital communication. The idea is to make online platforms store all the political ads -- both those that support specific candidates and those dealing with issues of national importance -- so that the public could access them and see how they were targeted. Another proposal is to mark the ads clearly with the advertiser's name. The platforms are called on to "make reasonable efforts" to ensure the ads are "not purchased by a foreign national, directly or indirectly."