WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee, today released the following statement on Facebook’s announcement that the company is taking steps to improve disclosure for paid advertisements.

Last week, Klobuchar introduced the Honest Ads Act with U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, to help prevent foreign interference in future elections and improve the transparency of online political advertisements.

“When Russians took advantage of loopholes in our laws and bought ads to divide Americans and influence our election it was a big wake up call. The lack of transparency and accountability in online political advertising is a threat to our democracy,” Klobuchar said. “It’s good to see companies taking these concerns seriously and I appreciate that Facebook is taking some new significant steps, but fixing this problem cannot be done with a patchwork of changes by individual platforms. We need Congress to pass my bipartisan Honest Ads Act to ensure all major online platforms are held to the same standards in place as broadcasters—including advertisements for issues of national legislative importance.”

As Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee with oversight jurisdiction over federal elections, Klobuchar has introduced legislation to improve the security of U.S. election systems and make commonsense improvements to election administration. She and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced the bipartisan Stop Foreign Donations Affecting Our Elections Act to strengthen disclosure by requiring federal campaigns to use existing credit card verification protocols to help verify that online credit card donations come from U.S. sources. Klobuchar and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also introduced bipartisan legislation to help states block cyber-attacks, secure voter registration logs and voter data, upgrade election auditing procedures, and create secure and useful information sharing about threats. In June, Klobuchar introduced the Helping State and Local Governments Prevent Cyber Attacks Act to help combat foreign interference by providing state and local governments with the information and resources they need to keep our elections secure and improve voter confidence.

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