Internet ads bill gains bipartisan support

U.S. legislation that would impose new disclosure requirements on political ads that run on Facebook and other websites received support on Wednesday from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., giving a bipartisan boost to a bill already popular among Democrats.

McCain, a longtime supporter of regulating campaign finances, and two Democratic senators, Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner, plan to introduce the legislation on today, according to a statement from their offices on Wednesday.

Online political ads are much more loosely regulated in the United States than political ads on television, radio and satellite services.

The lack of regulation was highlighted last month when Facebook, Alphabet's Google and Twitter said that they had found election-related ad buys on their services made by people in Russia in the run-up to last year's U.S. presidential election.

Non-Americans generally are not allowed to spend money to influence U.S. elections.

The legislation from the three senators would put online ads under the same rules as television, radio and satellite, so that who paid for them and other information would need to be disclosed.

Last month, after regulators and criminal investigators began looking at the Russia-linked ads, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company would take several voluntary steps to make political ads more transparent, such as allowing anyone to see them no matter whom they target.

Facebook and Twitter said on Wednesday that they are open to working with lawmakers on the matter. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McCain's office declined to comment.