Facebook tightens restrictions on political ads, but there are loopholes

… “Right now, what Facebook requires from advertisers is virtually nothing,” said Laura Edelson, a researcher at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering who studies political advertising. “Until now, there’s been no vetting whatsoever. It’s been advertisers’ responsibility to make sure [their disclosure] was correct.” … That’s a big hindrance for researchers who track political advertising on the platform. Unless Facebook makes the added information widely available, “It doesn’t really move the needle for people trying to understand political spending more broadly,” Edelson said.