Why does this come up in 2019 for the first time? A combination of the perceived effect Facebook has had in elections over the past half decade or so and the f

Why does this come up in 2019 for the first time? A combination of the perceived effect Facebook has had in elections over the past half decade or so and the fact that an election is coming up that many Facebook staff has an interest in, among other things. How did Newspapers, Radio and then TV handle this for the past 1200 years? I can't speak for all jurisdictions and certainly not going back that far, but in the USA, FWIW, there are federal regulations around the ads you're asking about that don't exist for online ads. Whether these regulations affect how truthful the ads are is certainly up for debate.