Facebook Fought Rules That Could Have Exposed Fake Russian Ads - Bloomberg

On a related note, see When Facebook and Google are ‘weaponized,’ the victim is reality (Washington Post)

"Since 2011, Facebook has asked the Federal Election Commission for blanket exemptions from political advertising disclosure rules -- transparency that could have helped it avoid the current crisis over Russian ad spending ahead of the 2016 U.S. election. 

Communications law requires traditional media like TV and radio to track and disclose political ad buyers. The rule doesn’t apply online, an exemption that’s helped Facebook’s self-serve advertising business generate hundreds of millions of dollars in political campaign spots. When the company was smaller, the issue was debated in some policy corners of Washington. Now that the social network is such a powerful political tool, with more than 2 billion users, the topic is at the center of a debate about the future of American democracy."

Facebook Fought Rules That Could Have Exposed Fake Russian Ads - Bloomberg