Given how much clout social media content creators can have on elections, some lawmakers from California want to pass federal legislation requiring influencers to disclose when they’re being paid by a political committee to post content supporting or opposing a candidate or other political viewpoint.
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California already has a law requiring this disclosure when it comes to races for statewide office, the legislature or statewide ballot measures.
Now, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff have introduced legislation in their respective houses to adopt similar regulations for races and campaign activities governed by the Federal Elections Commission, such as U.S. House and Senate and presidential contests. Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from Los Angeles County, is co-sponsoring the legislation.
The proposed Promoting Authenticity with Influencer Disclaimers (PAID) Act is an acknowledgment of the growing role that social media influencers are playing in elections.
“As more and more information in American life is shared through informal communicators like influencers, we need to recognize the risks of proliferating paid political speech without the guardrails that apply to all other forms of political advertising,” Schiff said in introducing the bill in the Senate this week.
“An influencer can reach far more than a billboard or even a broadcast ad in 2026, but people deserve the same understanding of who is behind that post and if they are paid for it,” he added.
Takano offered similar sentiments when he introduced the House version of the bill in June.
“Users deserve to know if a creator has been compensated by a campaign to post for them. Current campaign disclosure laws have not kept up with this new creator economy, and voters deserve to know who is financing their feeds before heading to the polling booths,” Takano said.
Concerns over whether social influencers were paid by campaigns to promote a candidate, but did not disclose that fact, became an issue during the California gubernatorial primary election. Ahead of Election Day, both the campaigns for Democratic candidates Tom Steyer and Xavier Becerra were accused of paying influencers who failed to disclose the arrangements.
Steyer’s campaign said it met its legal obligation by informing content creators that they were required to disclose if they were being paid by the campaign.
Becerra’s campaign, meanwhile, maintained that it did not pay outside content creators for posts. One popular influencer who posted interviews with Becerra before the campaign hired him as an adviser wasn’t paid for those posts, the campaign said.
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Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton ended up the top two vote-getters in the primary and will face off against each other in the November general election.
The New York Times reported in May that Democratic and Republican groups have paid millions of dollars to content creators and marketing firms for so-called “pay-for-play social media” during each of the last few campaign cycles.
As a result of headlines generated by California’s gubernatorial race during the primary, members of the California Legislature looked at strengthening an existing state law that requires social influencers to include a disclaimer if they were paid by a political committee to post certain content — but which doesn’t give the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission much authority beyond seeking a court order compelling the person to comply.
A state bill has since been proposed to increase liability in California for both the social influencer and the political committee that paid them if the content creator fails to post a disclaimer, and could result in both parties being fined.
According to Takano’s office, the PAID Act would leave it to the Federal Elections Commission to determine liability and to decide on the appropriate sanctions.
According to the text of the federal bill, the influencer must include “in a clear and conspicuous manner” a disclaimer that they’re being paid by a political committee for the posted content.
It’s not certain that the bill, if enacted, would take effect ahead of November’s midterm elections. The legislation calls on the Federal Election Commission to promulgate regulations to carry out the new rule by Jan. 1, 2027. The timing of any action would also be dependent on if and when Congress passes the bill and whether President Donald Trump signs it.
Elections watchdog groups that support the PAID Act say it would strengthen transparency.
“Our campaign finance laws must keep pace with today’s media landscape,” Abigail Bellows, a senior policy director with Common Cause, said in a statement.
“Content creators hold immense trust with their audiences, so when influencers are paid to shape our elections, the public has a right to know who is footing the bill,” said Bellows. “Voters deserve full transparency on political spending, whether they are watching television or scrolling social media.”
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