New York political campaigns would have to disclose paid social media posts by influencers under legislation proposed by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and state Sen. Liz Krueger.
The measure, A.3929-B in the Assembly and S.2437-A in the Senate, would require campaign-paid social media posts to be filed with the state Board of Elections. The posts would also have to carry a “paid for by” disclosure identifying them as sponsored political communication.
Dinowitz said he introduced the legislation with Krueger in 2025 to extend campaign-advertising transparency rules to a form of political messaging that can resemble an influencer’s personal opinion. He said New York law already requires campaigns to disclose paid political communication on printed and digital materials.
The proposal is aimed at arrangements in which campaigns pay prominent social media personalities or hire private firms that distribute smaller payments to less-known creators for a large volume of posts. Dinowitz said audiences may not know that a financial relationship is behind the content they are seeing.
In a statement Friday, Dinowitz cited recent reporting about campaigns using influencers with millions of followers as well as networks of smaller content creators. He argued that undisclosed sponsored posts can appear to reflect a creator’s genuine political beliefs even when the content was produced as part of a paid campaign.
Dinowitz said influencers can build unusually strong trust with their audiences through regular videos, endorsements and other online content. That relationship, he said, makes it important for viewers to know when support for a candidate or policy is connected to compensation.
Only four states currently have laws or regulations requiring disclosure of paid political messaging by influencers, according to Dinowitz, and those rules apply only to state and local elections. His statement did not identify the states or provide a timetable for further action on the New York bills.
Dinowitz said political advertising on social media is intended to achieve the same goals as campaign advertising in print or over the air. He said requiring filings and visible sponsorship notices would give voters more information about who is financing political messages that appear in their feeds.
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