Facebook says up to 10m people saw ads bought by Russian agency

Ads during election and afterward focused on ‘divisive social and political messages’, says VP after company provided material to Congress

Facebook estimated on Monday that as many as 10 million people watched the political ads that were bought by a grim Russian internet agency and ran on its platform.

The company made the announcement after delivering more than 3,000 advertisements to congressional investigators examining Russian interference in US elections.

Elliot Schrage, vice president of politics and communications for Facebook, said the ads appeared to focus on "divisive political and social messages across the ideological spectrum, touching issues of LGBT issues on racial issues, immigration to gun rights."
Less than half of the ads were seen before the US election on Nov. 8, Schrage said at the post, while 56 percent were spotted later. And about a quarter of the ads were not seen by anyone. In 99% of ads, less than $ 1,000 was spent, he said.

He also said some of the ads were paid in Russian currency, but said the distinction alone was not a "good way" to identify suspicious activity. Schrage defended the company's advertising use, but said that "certain types of targets will now require further review and approval by the company."

Facebook, along with Twitter and Google, is under increasing pressure from lawmakers and the public to reveal more details about Russia's use of platforms to spread disinformation and propaganda as part of a pre-election influence campaign. , initially dismissed as "crazy." Last week, Zuckerberg apologized: "To call that madness was contemptuous and I regret it. This is too important a subject to be contemptuous."

On September 6, Facebook revealed that a Russian-based influence operation had bought $ 100,000 worth of ads to promote divisive political and social messages during the presidential campaign. The ads, which ran between June 2015 and May 2017, spread controversial views on topics such as immigration and race and promoted 470 pages and "inauthentic" accounts, according to Facebook's own description. The revelation has added fuel to the findings of US intelligence officials that Russia was involved in influencing Trump's career against Hillary Clinton.

"The 2016 US elections were the first to be widely reported that foreign actors attempted to exploit the Internet to influence voter behavior," Schrage wrote.

"We understand more about how our service was abused and we will continue to investigate to learn as much as we can." We know that our experience is only a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. a much broader investigative power to obtain information from other sources. "
Facebook shared the 3,000 ads with the House and Senate intelligence committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee. The company had already delivered the announcements to special adviser Robert Mueller.

Joel Kaplan, vice president of global public policy at Facebook, said the company planned to hire more than 1,000 people to help review ads around the world. Kaplan said the company would require more documentation from advertisers wishing to run ads related to the US election.