NEWSLINK: “Facebook can’t protect elections on its own” – Washington Post editorial

“… Existing federal regulations place stricter requirements on political ads on radio and television than those on the Internet. There’s a reason for that: The use of online advertising in political campaigns has spiked in prominence in only the past few years, before most rules governing election spending were written. As a result, Facebook had no legal responsibility to let users know who was behind Kremlin-funded advertisements — even though similar ads run on a television station might have required a disclosure. The secrecy was even greater because of Facebook’s method of allowing advertisers to target posts to specific audiences. Other members of the public had no way of knowing what the targeted demographic saw. …”