Facebook would not be where it is today if their programmatic advertising tools were not friction-less, it's going to be interesting to watch them balance ease of use for customers while securing their system vs. bad actors.
As someone who has had perfectly legitimate Facebook ads rejected I wouldn't say the process was "frictionless". It's just inconsistent and bad actors seem to be much better at gaming the system.
It's not frictionless - all ads are approved. It takes some time and I don't think image and video approvals are entirely automated. I read in fact that a human being checks out every single one.
You have to give Facebook a copy of your ID, your SSN and wait for them to snail-mail you a code before you can get as far as Vice did. There's nothing friction-less about it.
Well normal ads you do not need to do any of that, you just need to have an account and a credit card. But yes for political ads you are supposed to go through their "Identity Confirmation and Authorization" process https://www.facebook.com/business/m/one-sheeters/ads-with-po...
And apparently, after you do that, you can post as whomever you want. Maybe you'll have a little personal liability (after the election, if someone can find any law enforcement that actually cares), but thats what the campaign war chest is for.
