Facebook says that advertisers will have to verify their identity in the future.The social media company will also include all ads in a searchable archive that lets regular users see every ad an advertiser has created. The age, location, gender, and costs will also be public information. I shared the news Friday with a group of more than 100 Facebook advertising professionals when it came out. Their reaction was silence mixed with incredulity. Their reaction was similar to mine. None of us seemed to expect Facebook to go that far that fast. Facebook Ads VP Rob Goldman: “Starting next month, people will be able to click “View Ads” on a Page and view ads a Page is running on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger — whether or not the person viewing is in the intended target audience for the ad. All Pages will be part of this effort, and we will require that all ads be associated with a Page as part of the ad creation process.” Goldman’s post Your organization’s ads will also be visible. We’ll all have to adapt and live with this new transparency. Facebook followed Twitter’s earlier news that Russian government news affiliates RT and Sputnik are now banned from advertising on Twitter. All three companies are desperately hoping that they can sell Congress on self-regulation of online advertising. This is important regardless of your politics after the MIT Technology Review published “How Tweets Translate into Votes” on Thursday. The study found that two UK elections showed “…politicians with Twitter accounts do get a higher share, though not by much.” | 
