Facebook Ads Backed by Russian Trolls Revealed
Facebook execs are in for a grilling, as U.S. lawmakers turn up the hit by bringing out a set of ads bought by agencies connected to Russia. These promotions show politically divisive content that is allegedly designed to affect the 2016 U.S. elections.
The House Intelligence Committee released the batch of Russian-sponsored Facebook ads on Wednesday, Nov 1. A part of this exhibit would be later released on the committee's democrat-side official website for public viewing.
Part of this collection was the series of Facebook ads that were turned over to special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation team earlier in September.
Printed blow-ups of these ads were presented during the committee hearing, where lawmakers were questioning representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Google about their possible role in spreading Russian influence on their respective online platforms. This was just on the second day of the series of hearings they have attended, according to Reuters.
Combined, the ads that form a part of the Russian-backed political content on social media were revealed to have reached about 126 million Americans, as Facebook shared earlier this week.
The range of topics mostly covers controversial race, gender and political issues, including some supposedly representing the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBT interests, immigration issues, and second amendment rights, as Business Insider notes.
Some of the ads were also squarely aimed at Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, with one account called "Army of Jesus" calling her "Satan."
"Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is," the ad read, comparing her to Donald Trump who it called "an honest man."
The Facebook ads were most likely sponsored by the Internet Research Agency, which was recently revealed to be a Russian troll farm. The relatively lax ad policies of Facebook and other social media services are now coming back to haunt them for their possible role in the 2016 election issues.
