New Georgia bill could force influencers to say when their political posts are paid for

ATLANTA — A group of Georgia state lawmakers filed a bill that would require social media personalities or influencers to declare if posts they make are paid for by political campaigns or committees.

According to the text of House Bill 1039, a social media personality is defined for the purpose of the legislation as “a person, group of people, or business entity that creates or posts content, messages, information, or images that are viewable by other users on one or more social media platforms in return for monetary or nonmonetary remuneration.”

The bill doesn’t specify if there will be additional specifications for audience size when defining who or what groups constitute a social media personality, nor did it include exceptions for nonmonetary remunerations.

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As written, HB 1039 would require that any time a candidate campaign committee, independent committee or political action committee pays a social media personality for the posting of content, messages, information or images of a candidate, independent campaign committee or political campaign committee pays for a social media personality to post their information, it is declared.

The disclosures would be required to be both in writing and made verbally, when the respective media allows, and would be made a part of each piece of content paid for by the aforementioned candidates and committees.

Additionally, for audio-only media, the payment for the posts or content must be announced, articulated, spoken or otherwise rendered completely using the same volume and speech speed as the rest of the post.

In layman’s terms, if someone defined as a social media personality makes a meme, video, reel, picture, message or status post about a candidate or committee or on behalf of a candidate or committee and receives some type of compensation for it, they’ll have to include that fact in the post itself. For audio posts, the poster will also have to state that the content is paid for at the same read speed as the rest of the post.

The current version of the bill does not specify any potential criminal charges for failure to comply with the legislation’s provisions, should it pass.

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