Rep. Anna Paulina Luna introduced a two-page bill to close a gap in nearly century-old foreign-agent law, requiring social media influencers paid by foreign governments to say so publicly.
The Florida Republican's Foreign Propaganda Disclosure Act, introduced Monday, amends the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 by inserting "social media influencers" under the definition of "publicity agent." Under current FARA rules, lobbyists, consultants, and public-relations firms that work on behalf of foreign governments must register with the Justice Department and disclose the relationship. Online influencers who do the same work, shaping political opinion for foreign cash, face no such requirement.
Luna's fix is narrow. The bill defines a "social media influencer" as any person with a monetized account on a social media platform and folds that person into FARA's existing disclosure framework. It does not create new penalties or a new enforcement mechanism. It simply says: if you are doing the job of a publicity agent for a foreign principal, the law now names you as one.
The bill carries two Democratic co-sponsors, Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, along with Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin. That bipartisan lineup is notable in a Congress where foreign-influence legislation has struggled to gain traction across the aisle.
Luna framed the bill as a transparency measure, not a crackdown on speech. In a statement, she said:
"Americans should be able to know when the people shaping conversations online are acting on behalf of foreign interests. The Foreign Propaganda Disclosure Act brings foreign-backed influence operations into the light and sends a clear message that America's public square is not for sale."
She went further in an interview with Politico, hinting that some of the "biggest profile names" in the political influencer world "have been approached at one point to push a certain position that's probably tied to a foreign country." Luna declined to name names. "I have a number of those people. I'm not going to put anyone on blast. That's not my job," she told the outlet. She added: "I've seen contracts into the millions."
Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump ally who served as a top advisor on the 2024 presidential campaign, has repeatedly warned that foreign entities and special interest groups are paying right-wing and MAGA-aligned influencers to manipulate the conservative base and undermine the administration's policy agenda. He put the disclosure gap in blunt commercial terms in an interview with Politico:
"If you get paid to promote a swimsuit, you have to say 'paid partnership.' If you get paid to tell the president to pull tariffs off of India, you don't have to disclose."
Bruesewitz added that "the American public deserves to know what content that is going out on the accounts of their favorite social media personalities is bought and paid for by foreign interests."
The concern is not hypothetical. A June report from the Daily Mail listed several MAGA influencers, including C.J. Pearson, Rob Smith, Arynne Wexler, Emily Wilson, and Ryan Fournier, co-founder of Students for Trump, among those accused of taking foreign cash. Those are allegations, not confirmed findings. But the Daily Mail also reported that the White House has begun monitoring signs that influencers are being paid by domestic or foreign lobbies.
The broader landscape around foreign influence and conservative media figures is tangled. Brad Parscale, a veteran of Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, is now a registered foreign agent of the Israeli government, the Daily Caller reported, citing earlier investigations by Responsible Statecraft and Time Magazine. Parscale also serves as chief strategy officer at Salem Media Group, which owns 117 radio stations in 38 markets and runs the conservative news sites Townhall, RedState, Hot Air, and PJ Media. Parscale has reported connections to influencer firms that pay online figures, though the precise nature of those connections remains unclear.
None of that means Parscale or any other named individual has broken the law. But it illustrates the gap Luna's bill targets: a person can hold a registered foreign-agent relationship, occupy a senior role at a major conservative media company, and maintain ties to influencer payment networks, all without any specific requirement that the influencers themselves disclose who is funding their posts.
Not everyone agrees that Luna's bill changes much. Nicole Kelly, a senior counsel at Lex Politica, a law firm that represents clients navigating FARA registration questions, told the Daily Caller that the bill addresses "a genuine gap in oversight" but cautioned that current law already reaches further than many realize.
"FARA currently requires registration for any person, including influencers, who engage in political or public relations activities on behalf of a foreign principal, meaning the findings in this report could already trigger disclosure obligations under current law."
Kelly acknowledged, however, that Luna's amendment "signals the momentum building in Washington toward transparency around foreign influence in our political system." In other words, the bill may matter more as a political signal than as a legal overhaul, putting influencers on notice that Congress is watching, even if the Justice Department already had the tools to act.
Luna's bill is not the first attempt to update FARA for the social-media age. In 2025, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the PAID OFF Act, the Preventing Adversary Influence, Disinformation and Obscured Foreign Financing Act, as Senate Bill 3050. That bill sought to amend FARA and close various loopholes. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted in June to recommend the bill for further consideration by the full chamber.
On the House side, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas introduced companion legislation, House Bill 6107, during the same session. That bill has stalled. The pattern is familiar: bipartisan agreement that the problem exists, followed by legislative inertia once the bill leaves committee.
Luna's two-page approach takes a different tack, a surgical amendment rather than a comprehensive overhaul. Whether that makes it easier to pass or easier to ignore remains an open question. The bill has no announced committee referral, no hearing date, and no floor timeline.
Several practical gaps remain. The bill defines a social media influencer as someone with a "monetized account," but the threshold for monetization is not specified. It does not spell out new penalties for non-compliance beyond whatever FARA already imposes. And Luna's office did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller, leaving questions about enforcement strategy and next steps unanswered.
The core tension is straightforward. A swimsuit brand must pay for a disclosure tag. A foreign government, apparently, does not, or at least does not face a rule specific enough to make influencers think twice. Luna's bill names the problem. Whether Congress does anything about it is a different matter entirely.
When foreign cash can quietly shape what millions of Americans see in their feeds every day, transparency is not a partisan ask, it is the bare minimum a self-governing people ought to demand.
