In theory facebook could force a full audit / history of the ad varieties used in targeting and provide it to journalistic folks who want to do such analysis.

In theory facebook could force a full audit / history of the ad varieties used in targeting and provide it to journalistic folks who want to do such analysis. In practice, that is not very different from a politician saying what is necessary to get the votes to different people: Now s/he is enabled to do it from behind the desk. I look at it as an exercise in building analytic capability and resistance to mis-information. This is one (if not costly) way of ensuring people realize the downsides of insular and self confirming thoughts and go back to actual analysis and funding trustworthy news mediums. At one point Radio was the devil, then it was TV and so on. Almost each generation goes through this. For some, the learnings don't kick in without grave costs and in a weird way, it is darwinian. If the biggest worry is influencing votes, There is a big money in researching ways of exposing these lies in a people accessible form. The problem with the current rhetoric IMO is that it is more around 'Here is all the information, you make the call' to a set of folks who lack time / energy and may be even the analytic bandwidth. Usually when people hear an 'But actually, xyz science studies say this' - no one goes, 'Oh shit, let me change my opinion'. They go ' Oh shit, he is pointing at my ignorance'. What we want is to build trust with the voter base and not make them feel alienated. We want trustworthy pundits who make information accessible and ways to cross check what these folks say and provide the same information without putting down folks. We want the cross check setup to be non-partisan and fair instead of it being 'I belong to the other side, am going to call this bad no matter what they do'. We want real repercussions for feeding misinformation - not just in actual words, but in the style of communication. We want clear delineation of facts, opinions and assertions. IOW this is a huge opportunity: educating the masses on issues and ensure they vote with right information.