Fredreka Schouten

Secret donors financed more than four out of every 10 television ads that outside groups broadcast in 2018 to influence November’s high-stakes congressional elections. Leading the way: organizations affiliated with billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, whose conservative donor network plows hundreds of millions of dollars into politics and policy debates each election cycle.

Political advertisements on Facebook would have to include disclaimers showing who paid for them, under legal opinions the nation’s federal election regulators are taking up Thursday. If the Federal Election Commission (FEC) votes to adopt the requirement at its Dec 14 meeting, it would mark the first federal move to formally regulate political advertising on social media following revelations that Kremlin-tied groups used ads on Facebook and other platforms in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election.