State judge rules Facebook violated campaign finance rules

King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North also turned down Facebook’s request to gut part of the law, delivering a blow to the social media giant’s challenge of some of the strictest disclosure rules governing digital political advertising in the country, according to the attorney general’s office.

“We defeated Facebook’s cynical attempt to strike down our campaign finance transparency law,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) said in a statement. “On behalf of the people of Washington, I challenge Facebook to accept this decision and do something very simple — follow the law.”

Facebook limits some political ad targeting, but impact is unlikely to be great

The ruling arrives as Meta faces scrutiny over how much information it discloses about the way political candidates use marketing campaigns on its social networks. Facebook has long faced criticism over allowing political campaigns to narrowly tailor their ad purchases.

The company is…