Election laws ‘not fit for purpose’, says Electoral Commission
Laws governing the General Election are not fit for purpose and need reform, according to the Electoral Commission.
The electoral watchdog said today that changes by Facebook and Google to increase advertising transparency were not a substitute for reform.
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The commission wants more powers to make sure online political advertising is better labelled, a ban on spending by foreign organisations and an increase in the maximum fine they can hand out.
The government said back in May it would safeguard future elections by creating new laws concerning advertising.
However, no changes have materialised in the lead-up to the 12 December General Election.
Louise Edwards, director of regulation at the Electoral Commission, told Reuters: “We think electoral law needs to be reformed. That hasn’t happened, so we are continuing to run this election with laws that aren’t fit for purpose.
“There are definitely going to be things that we would rather see done differently, better and more transparently for the voter that won’t be, because the law hasn’t been updated.”
Read more: General Election 2019: Twitter ban on political ads comes into effect
Facebook now has available information on how much each party is spending on advertising, while Twitter has recently banned political advertising from the platform.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg refused to announce a ban on political advertising.