Nathan Persily of Stanford will discuss how campaign finance law and policy is predicated on television as the primary mode of political campaigning. Once campaigning moves more fully to the internet, it becomes almost impossible to regulate and further exacerbates current polarizing campaign finance trends in undisclosed spending by outside, unaccountable groups. With government rendered largely impotent because of both Citizens United and these technological developments, attention should turn to the major internet platforms (e.g., Google, Facebook, and Twitter) as the primary locus for self-regulation of the campaign finance system. These platforms already regulate speech (e.g., hate speech, impersonation, incitement) in ways that would violate the First Amendment if passed by government, and Persily seeks to update their policies both to further the values of campaign reform and to ensure that the platforms’ generic regulation of commercial advertising becomes sensitive to the unique features of political communication.

This event kicks off the Public Policy Lecture Series Fall 2016. Nathaniel Persily is the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School.

Sponsored by the Elizabeth C. Ducey Political Science Lecture Fund