Facebook has admitted that it sold ads to Russian-linked accounts during the election: in an update on information operations, the social network revealed that a Russian operation spent big bucks on ads with divisive political messages such as race, gay rights, gun control, and immigration. They were linked to some 470 fake accounts created by a Russian company called the Internet Research Agency, which is known for using “troll” accounts to post on social media and comment on news websites. Some say that this is clear evidence of election interference.



One question that has emerged is whether there’s a connection between the Russian efforts and ads purchased on Facebook. These are serious claims and we’ve been reviewing a range of activity on our platform to help understand what happened. In reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Fake Russian Facebook Accounts Bought 0,000 in Political Ads