Will Facebook's New Ad-Transparency Tools Protect Democracy?

Time and again, when facing criticism about Facebook’s role in elections, the company’s executives have promised to provide maximal transparency about the advertising that runs on their services.

The digital tools will ensure this transparency will be unprecedented for not just Facebook and the digital advertising industry, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly contended, but for any medium. “Even without legislation, we’re already moving forward on our own to bring advertising on Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency than ads on TV or other media,” Zuckerberg told investors last year. He said similar things in a blog post announcing the effort, as well as before Congress.

This response has, in part, been designed to stave off Congressional action with teeth, even if Facebook publicly committed to supporting the Honest