Washington Post – “Major social platforms put new limits on political ads in the run-up to the controversial 2020 election due to concerns they amplify misinformation. But a new Duke University paper published today [J. Scott Babwah Brennen & Matt Perault, March 2, 2021 Breaking Blackout Black Boxes: Roadblocks to Analyzing Platform Political Ads] says a persistent lack of transparency in online political ads is preventing researchers from studying how that changed campaign spending, or impacted individual campaigns.  Researchers trying to answer these questions instead encountered a major black box. The report estimates that in the final months of the election, campaigns directed 94 percent of their advertising spending through consulting firms.  Duke researchers want Washington to change rules so that political organizations have to report how advertising agencies are spending on their behalf. Currently political campaigns have to disclose that they paid an agency or consulting firm, and researchers can’t see how those firms are spending the money…”