Facebook's archive of political ads is now live

Facebook turned on its new political ad transparency regime on Thursday.

Why it matters: After the 2016 election manipulation scandal, Facebook's efforts to police ads on its platform will be closely watched ahead of the midterms. In a call with reporters, the company indicated it's paying close attention to developments regarding political ad regulation.

The details:

• Starting Thursday, Facebook and Instagram United States election ads, in addition to ads on certain issues, will be marked as political with a label denoting who paid for them to run.
• The company also debuted its archive of political advertisements — which it says will ultimately cover seven years of material. The company started putting ads in the archive in early May, said Facebook executive Rob Leathern.
• Users will also be able to flag ads that they think are political, but aren't marked as such.