NEWS: Schiff Introduces Bill to Improve Transparency of Paid Influencers Promoting Political Campaigns

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced legislation that would require clear and prominent disclaimers on posts by online influencers that have been paid for by political committees or candidates.

"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. 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. The PAID Act is a bicameral solution to apply the same bipartisan standards we've applied to other advertising to this new class of political speech," said Senator Schiff.

The Promoting Authenticity with Influencer Disclaimer (PAID) Act would formalize in law changes that the Federal Election Commission has attempted to make for more than a decade but have lacked the statutory clarity to do so.

The PAID Act would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act to require any person paid by a political committee or candidate to post a clear disclaimer that they were paid to post. Representative Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39) is the lead of the House companion legislation.

"Our social media feeds must be fixed," said Congressman Takano. "Users deserve to know if a creator has been compensated by a campaign to post for them. Senator Schiff and I introduced the PAID Act because current campaign disclosure laws have not kept up with this new creator economy, and voters deserve to know who is financing their feeds before they vote."

This bill is also supported by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Common Cause, End Citizens United, and Public Citizen.

"Our campaign finance laws must keep pace with today's media landscape," said Abigail Bellows, Senior Policy Director for Anti-Corruption & Accountability, Common Cause. "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. Voters deserve full transparency on political spending, whether they are watching television or scrolling social media."

"Transparency within our electoral system has historically been a bulwark of our democracy. The increasing use of social media influencers in political campaigns necessitates the need for transparency requirements to be updated and adapt to the way that political actors communicate with voters," said Debra Perlin, Vice President for Policy, CREW. "The Promoting Authenticity with Influencer Disclaimers (PAID) Act is crucial legislation meant to let voters know whether the content they are seeing was paid for by political committees. CREW is proud to endorse this legislation introduced by Senator Schiff and Representative Takano, and urges Congress to act on this important legislation."

"A number of special interest groups, even some foreign governments, are now paying social media influencers to repeat their propaganda, without disclosing that these are paid messages," said Craig Holman, Ph.D., Public Citizen. "Those who follow these influencers are deceived into thinking these messages are genuine independent thought, when the messages are simply paid commercials. This legislation would require proper disclosure of such ads and is firmly endorsed by Public Citizen."

"Social media has become one of the most powerful forces in American politics, and right now, Big Money groups are exploiting it with zero accountability," said Tiffany Muller, President, End Citizens United. "The reality is that many people get their political news from social media feeds, so we have to hold creators to the same disclosure standards as anyone else. If a TV ad has to say who paid for it, so should a sponsored post. Senator Schiff's bill closes that loophole, and we are proud to support this commonsense legislation."

The full text of the legislation is available here.

###