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Gov. Code, § 84513 · Article 5. Disclosure in Advertisements

Gov. Code, § 84513

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) (1) If a committee pays a person to post content on an internet website, web application, or digital application for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate for elective office or a ballot measure, the person shall concurrently include a disclaimer with that content stating that the person was paid by the committee in connection with the posting.

(2) The disclaimer required by this subdivision shall be readily legible to an average viewer or, if the content is in audio format, shall be clearly audible. A disclaimer that states, or is substantially similar to, the following satisfies the requirement in this subdivision: “The author was paid by [name of committee and committee identification number] in connection with this posting.”

(3) This subdivision does not apply to the following:

(A) Content requiring a disclosure pursuant to Section 84504.3 or subdivision (c) of Section 84511.

(B) Content posted on the committee’s own website, profile, or landing page by a person compensated by the committee to post such content.

(C) Content posted by a compensated employee of a committee on the employee’s own social media page or account where the only expense or cost of the communication is compensated staff time. This exception shall not apply if the compensated employee of the committee’s principal duties are to post content on their own social media page or account.

(b) A committee described in subdivision (a) shall notify the person paid to post the content of the requirement to include a disclaimer.

(c) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, a person in violation of subdivision (a) is not subject to administrative, civil, or criminal penalties under this title.

(2) If a person violates subdivision (a), the Commission may seek injunctive relief to compel compliance pursuant to Section 90009 after the person is notified of the requirement in subdivision (a).

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 2023, Ch. 156, Sec. 1. (SB 678) Effective January 1, 2024.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=84513.
Text hash
sha256 779ee4c2ab13239cfc1ae5dc65989458778b50612df1fb049c2cefa75b518267
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.