The Federal Election Commission is still bitterly divided over whether to crack down on political speech sent over social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.
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In a joint Tuesday statement, the agency’s three Republican commissioners reiterated their position that the feds should refrain from regulating interaction on social media. “To find otherwise would hamper free communication through … thousands of new and developing social media platforms,” the trio wrote.
But all three of the agency’s Democrats opted not to join the statement.
The document reflects a debate that’s been taking place in the FEC for the last two months over Twitter. It began in February, when the agency deadlocked in a 3-3 vote over whether it should force candidates and political parties to include disclaimers on their social media pages.
Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub weighed in on March 31, accusing Republicans on the commission of violating the public’s “right to know” what was taking place online.
“The Twitterverse has carved out for itself a unique and increasingly important role in American elections and political debate,” Weintraub wrote. “The public has a right to know … by failing to require political committees to include disclaimers on their Twitter profiles, the Commission yet again has failed here to give meaning to these important concerns.”
Regulating the “Twitterverse” would mean regulating a lot of other things as well, Republican commissioners Lee Goodman, Matthew Petersen, and Caroline Hunter wrote on Tuesday. “Social media platforms as diverse as Facebook and Instagram to Snapchat and the New York Times comment boards would be swept into a cumbersome and often speech prohibitive disclaimer scheme,” they said.
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“We have previously expressed concern about the trend among some Commissioners to regulate and deter the use of new technologies and the Internet to facilitate public political discourse,” they added. “We resist the effort by some to extend Commission regulatory burdens deep into the free and non-corruptive communication opportunities evolving on the Internet.”
The commission’s Democrats have been crusading to regulate free content on the web for well over a year. After backlash from observers who saw the effort as a thinly veiled attempt to crack down on conservative outlets, like the Drudge Report or Fox News, regulators largely began shifting their focus to social media.
