Political advertising on television has been regulated for decades in most democracies.
, broadcast windows and identification requirements all developed around a medium that everybody watched at once.
Online advertising broke every assumption in that framework, beginning with the idea of an audience.
A television advertisement is seen by opponents, journalists and regulators at the same moment as supporters.
That , rather than any rule, produced most of the discipline in the old system.
A narrowly message is seen only by the people selected to see it.
promises can be made to different groups without either group learning about the other.
Advertisement were the first response and are a genuine improvement.
Every paid political message is published with its and its approximate audience.
Researchers have used them extensively, and ordinary voters have not, which was predictable.
Transparency works through intermediaries, so the relevant question is whether journalists have the capacity to read the library.
In countries with a weakened local press, the answer has been no.
Unpaid content is the larger channel and sits outside every rule written so far.
A coordinated network of ordinary accounts is cheaper than advertising and harder to .
Regulating the paid channel while the unpaid one grows may simply move the money out of view.