It's no secret why Facebook has agreed to the investigations: it's facing mounting pressure in both cases. The company is facing a lawsuit over discriminatory housing ads, and Republicans have routinely accused Facebook of intentionally downplaying conservative content. Whether or not Facebook actually needs to change its practices, the scrutiny might head off further legal and political action in addition to quieting some of its critics.

There are still some unanswered questions: how extensive will these inspections be? And if there is evidence of bias, how will Facebook address it beyond existing measures like publishing its community standards? There's a good chance this won't satisfy everyone, for that matter. All the same, this shows that Facebook is at least taking allegations seriously.