AAPC believes that suppression of political advertising reduces the ability of people to participate and learn about the democratic process – including the candidates, political organizations and policy issues that matter to them. Suppressing advertising is restricting free speech and an official campaign’s ability to reach a broad community online. Blanket political ad bans on digital platforms gag legitimate, fully disclosed campaign and policy advertising by lawful candidates and organizations, while doing little to crack down on anonymous accounts devoted to spreading inflammatory and false information.

In addition, allowing people to mute legitimate campaign advertising to avoid the noise of presidential or statewide campaigns, also prevents people from learning about the democratic process and critical issues that affect their everyday lives. With the decline of local journalism, people may never hear the arguments from competing political candidates and causes if they opt out. Small, local campaigns with budgets of only a few thousand dollars are the ones that are hurt the most when people “mute” campaigns. Muting campaign advertising infringes on the kind of dialogue most needed in a democracy, and keeps people separated from issues and their political representatives.

AAPC steadfastly supports the foundational principles of political free speech enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and urges full access to social media networks, email service providers and digital news and content publishes for all official campaigns and political and non-profit organizations.

Adopted 10/18/21