Finally, Facebook’s interface in 2018 allowed pages to change their names
without changing the associated numeric identiﬁer and collects the funding
information (of which a page can have many) in string format only without
a numeric identiﬁer (in 2019, Facebook began standardizing funding entity
entries). These decisions create huge logistical headaches for researchers
trying to report on spending by different types of entities. In our own
investigation of the November 10, 2018, aggregated report published by
Facebook following the 2018 midterm elections, we discovered that our team
had three different versions of the report (indicating that the report was likely
updated and, depending on when we pulled it down, we got different
information).22 In collaboration with the Center for Responsive Politics

22 This report no longer seems to be accessible from the Facebook library website.

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108890960 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Social_Media_and_Democracy