The Federal Elections Commission (“FEC”) has announced that it resolved two complaints addressing the issue of whether Internet blog activity is subject to FEC regulation. On September 4, 2007, the FEC found that such blogging activity is exempt from regulation under the media or volunteer exemption. Now, political bloggers can breathe a little easier knowing that they might escape FEC regulation under these exemptions.
Media activity was pronounced exempt from federal campaign finance in 1974. Then in 2006, the FEC clarified that this media exemption extends to online media, stating that “costs incurred in covering or carrying a news story, commentary, or editorial by any broadcasting station… website, newspaper… or other periodical publication, including any Internet or electronic publication” are not a contribution or expenditure unless the facility is owned by a political party, committee, or candidate.
In the first matter, the Commission determined that the respondent operator of the DailyKos website, Kos Media, did not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act. The website allegedly charges a fee to place advertising on its website and provides a “gift of free advertising and candidate media services” by posting blog entries that support candidates. The subject of the complaint facing the website was for a Failure to Register as a Political Committee. Upon review, the commission found that the this website falls within the media exception, and that therefore, the activity on the website does not constitute a contribution or expenditure that would trigger political committee status, meaning that the website did not violate federal campaign finance law.
In the second case, the complainant (a political candidate) asserted that the respondent failed to report expenditures, coordinated these expenses with the candidate’s opponent in the race, and fraudulently represented campaign authority in violation of 2 U.S.C. § 441h. The respondent leased space on a computer server to create a “blog” which advocated the defeat of Representative Mary Bono in the November 2006 election. The commission determined that the respondent did not make unreported expenditures by engaging in this activity. The FEC also rejected allegations that the party coordinated these expenditures with the complainant’s opponent, finding that no in-kind contributions to the opponent’s campaign resulted from the respondent’s blogging activity. Lastly, the FEC found that the respondent did not fraudulently misrepresent himself.
FEC Decision: http://www.fec.gov/press/press2007/20070904murs.shtml