Thread by @propublica

1/ Facebook just announced that its ad archive — until now for political ads — will expand to include all ads, if they're still active. You’ll be able search more ads running on the site. newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/03/a…

2/ Facebook says its goal is to “make advertising more transparent and to give people more information about the ads they see.”

Facebook has also added archives for other parts of the world, including India, Israel and EU countries. theguardian.com/technology/201…

3/ And Facebook says it will no longer considering ads from news publishers to be "politics or issues"-related ads. This is an issue we (and others) raised last summer: propub.li/2FJrZA1

4/ But let’s be clear: Facebook is still the company that shut down ad transparency projects, including ours. propub.li/2OyQym1

5/ That now-blocked project was how we collected 100,000+ political ads. Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than 70 percent of all the political ads we saw were highly targeted by ideology: propub.li/2FKRlOe

6/ We asked Facebook if the archive will include details about how ads are targeted—which is key. And we asked if the new library design is in response to a suit from HUD yesterday or a settlement with civil rights groups last week. propub.li/2THUuBV

They haven’t answered.

Confirmed: Facebook's new ad library will *not* include information about how ads are targeted.

A spokesperson said: "We don’t offer targeting today but are always open to feedback so we can continue to improve."

This was the premise of our tool. propub.li/2OyQym1