For years, a loophole in Texas election regulations has allowed social media users to not have to label political content that they are paid to produce.

The state’s elections watchdog, however, effectively closed that loophole Tuesday afternoon when state ethics commissioners unanimously voted to approve a rule to require influencers to disclose paid posts and videos as political advertisements.

The Texas Ethics Commission’s rule change comes after a Texas Tribune report in August revealed a shadowy campaign consulting group deployed a network of online influencers to defend Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on social media ahead of an impeachment trial the state’s top attorney was facing on corruption charges.

The company, Influenceable LLC, paid Gen Z social media users on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms to share posts impugning the legitimacy of the impeachment inquiry and to accuse Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who approved the House’s investigation into Paxton, of being an alcoholic, the Tribune reported. The advertisements reached millions of followers, the Tribune found.

Influenceable markets itself as a business for “brands, organizations, and campaigns in the anti-woke economy.” Ultimately, Paxton, who was impeached by the House in May 2023, was cleared of any wrongdoing along party lines in the Texas Senate.

The amended Texas Ethics Commission rule will require transparency about such transactions, requiring that a person who is paid to boost a post or make their own video or post by a political actor discloses that to their audience.

Texas election regulations require that political advertisements disclose the name of the individual or group that paid for them on television, in print, in radio broadcasts or online.

Previously, social media users were only required to label posts as political ads if they spent more than $100 of their own money on advertising within a reporting period, which exempted influencers who were paid to produce the content by outside groups. The rule narrows that exception.

Candidates and officeholders can share unlabeled political advertising as long as they label their accounts clearly with their full names, as per existing rules.

At the meeting held at the Capitol on Tuesday morning, Texas Ethics Commission Chair Randall Erben, a law professor at the University of Texas, described the rule change as “an extension of our normal political disclaimer rules to the digital age.”

The commission’s general counsel, James Tinley, nodded to companies like Influenceable in his explanation of the rule update, saying, “We know that there’s a practice now concerning influencers who are being … paid by others to carry a message.”

He also emphasized that the change will bring the state’s rules closer to the intent of the Texas Election Code statute that requires candidates, individuals or political action committees to label “political advertising containing express advocacy.”

Tinley analogized social media platforms to the print media that has been available since the disclosure law was first passed in 1987.

“The idea of it is that if you’re paying for space in a newspaper rather than the newspaper’s own speech, that’s ‘for consideration’ and would require a political advertising disclosure statement,” he said.

Tinley said the commission received written comments from some members of the public who are concerned that it would “create an opportunity for investigation of normal citizens’ speech.” However, no outright opponents of the rule gave remarks at the meeting. One person spoke in support of the new rule.

The amended rule, §26.1 of Chapter 20 on political contribution and expenditure reporting, will go into effect once it is published in the Texas Register.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas changes rules on social media influencers, paid political posts