There are existing prohibitions to how foreigners may participate in US elections. This seems to make it easier for Facebook to make sure it's following those laws.

https://www.fec.gov/updates/foreign-nationals/

Maybe displaying ads should require a license.

If we cant even zone districts without controversy I highly doubt we'll ever be able to distribute licenses in an effective manner

What does "zone districts" mean?

It could keep out some honest actors but transparency in funding is important.

No it is not. You don't have the right to invade privacy of groups of people no more than I have the right to invade your privacy and inspect your bank accounts. Maybe you're Russian troll? Maybe you are paid by Putin? Would like to make your bank accounts public for everybody to ensure it is not the case? Probably not. Then why should other people who make political statements?

The sane and obvious solution is to cap campaign spending. Anything else, willful or not, is either corruption or mere oligarchy.

We've now seen what happens without gatekeepers and there's no way we can call that "better."

The electoral college is another gatekeeper, and many advocating for Facebook's better political advertising controls advocated for abolishment of the electoral college.

To the extent that the EC's purpose is to prevent any demagogue from capturing the attention of voters by telling them lies they want to hear, it's not functioning as intended but would likely be welcomed if it was.

What has happened? I'm not USian so I didn't follow the calamity that has befallen America.

You're literally commenting on an article about it.

I have to be honest, I read the GP as a political statement. Maybe conflated with the GGP.

I did too, but I tried to take the most charitable interpretation. I've had enough conversations with dang about engaging with political trolls recently so I'm trying this new thing where I'm being nice to people. It's harder than you might think.

I don't know if HN has taken any steps to combat the right-wing/Russian propaganda campaign that's impacting most US social websites, but it'd be naive to think the site hasn't been targeted.

Whatever Facebook decides to do they are still a gatekeeper...

If anything, we need more gatekeepers like this that are shedding light on the dark money used for political advertising.

This is something that should have been a day-1 feature, IMHO