Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon documents concerns from Republican members of the Federal Election Commission.
Republicans on the Federal Election Commission are vowing to fight regulations on online political advocacy that they say would chill free speech and potentially lead to politicized targeting of Internet writers and video-makers.
The commission’s chairman is warning that such regulations would allow the federal government to impose onerous new regulations on websites such as the Drudge Report or the Washington Free Beacon.
“I vow to fight any additional regulation on online political speech,” FEC chairman Lee Goodman said in an interview.
At issue is a recent FEC ruling on a series of YouTube videos made by a conservative group called Checks and Balances for Economic Growth that criticized various Obama administration policies.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a litigious liberal group owned by pro-Hillary Clinton operative David Brock, brought a complaint against the group claiming that it violated FEC rules by failing to report expenses associated with those videos.
The commission deadlocked on the question. Its 3-3 vote resulted in a dismissal of the complaint.
In response, the commission’s top Democrat on Friday issued a statement that FEC Republicans have interpreted as a call to roll back 2006 regulations that exempted free online issue advocacy from FEC reporting requirements normally applied to paid advertisements on broadcast media and the Internet.
In a statement on Friday, FEC vice chair Ann Ravel called on the commission to revisit that regulation. The FEC should consider rules that would impose disclosure requirements on certain online political speech, she said. …
… While no regulatory language has yet been proposed, Goodman and his Republican colleagues on the commission are already pushing back against what they say is an unworkable attempt to regulate online communications that will chill free speech.
The problem is that Ravel’s approach to the issue contains “no limiting principle,” Goodman said. In attempting to crack down on those “slickly-produced ads,” the FEC could ensnare countless Internet users who simply communicate their political views online.
