California: Online political ad disclosure rules approved

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Come next election season, California voters will be able to tell, for the first time, who's paying for the political advertisements that pop up on their favorite websites.

The state's campaign watchdog agency approved new rules Friday to regulate electronic communications the same way it does television, radio and print ads.

The unanimous decision by the Fair Political Practices Commission will allow voters to find out who is paying for most ads - whether they appear online or are sent as text or e-mail messages - by requiring campaigns to include the information on the advertisement. If an ad is too small to include all of the information, its sponsors must at least include the campaign's FPPC number and, whenever possible, include a hyperlink to a Web page with campaign finance information.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/12/BAC01GBAIH.DTL