Facebook won't release data on political ads to researchers

While many political scientists are itching to get their hands on data documenting how political ads on Facebook performed, the company says it won't be releasing that information. Facebook says it doesn't differentiate between political and commercial ads with this policy and that's not likely to change any time soon. Researchers want information on how much money candidates spent on ads, who saw them and how often they were clicked in order to assess how big of a role ads played in the election. And because online advertising allows for more specific demographic targeting than other methods, getting information on how ads changed across demographics is information that academics think would boost transparency. "The holy grail, I think, of political analysis for the 2016 election is to figure out which communications from which entities had an effect on which jurisdictions in the United States," Nathan Persily, a Stanford University professor, told Reuters.