California Senate Passes Bill To Fine Influencers Over Undisclosed Paid Political Posts

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

The California Senate passed a bill on Aug. 24 to fine content creators who make paid political content without disclosing the compensation.

The legislation, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman, will still need a vote in the state Assembly before it reaches Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.

The governor will have until the end of September to either sign or veto the bill.

"Voters should have a right to know whether or not campaigns are paying for the messaging that they're seeing," Berman said last month.

Both Texas and California require content creators to include disclaimers on political posts. The new legislation is an effort to enforce the law.

Currently, the state's campaign watchdog can request that a court compel an influencer to disclose the monetary connection, but it could take months for the process to reach fruition.

However, Berman's bill would give California's Fair Political Practices Commission the power to fine both influencers and political committees if they violate the law, bypassing the court's involvement.

Creators can face fines of up to $5,000 per violation.

Southern California content creator Dustin Torreverde, who has not been paid for political content, said he believes it is important for influencers to disclose this kind of payment, but is concerned the bill could cause an unfair burden for people in his field.

"A lot of us are very small creators," he said. "So if we were to get penalized and we have to get lawyers, stuff like that, it's going to be very difficult for us."

California's Senate action comes about a month after Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced federal legislation to require disclosure of the political affiliation of influencers. That bill has not yet been brought up for a vote.

The Promoting Authenticity with Influencer Disclaimer (PAID) Act would give the Federal Election Commission the authority it has pursued for years.

The act would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act to require anyone paid by a political committee or candidate to add a clear disclaimer that they were paid to post the content.

"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 a statement.

"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."

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif) authored the House companion legislation.

"Our social media feeds must be fixed," he said in a statement.

"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."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.