Facebook admits selling £76,000 of adverts to Russian ‘trolls’ during US election campaign
FACEBOOK has admitted selling adverts to a Russian "troll farm" blamed for spreading "divisive" content during the US election campaign.
The social network confessed to flogging $100,000 (£76,000) worth of on ads aimed at stirring up issues such as gun control and race relations last year.
Experts believe Russia ran a targeted social media campaign during the election in a bid to influence the result.
The 470 accounts appear to be run by a St. Petersburg-based troll farm known for promoting pro-Russian government positions via fake accounts, to two people familiar with the investigation told AP.
In all, the accounts purchased some 3,000 ads between June 2015 and May 2017.
While the ads didn't specifically reference the election, a candidate or voting, they nevertheless allowed "divisive messages" to be amplified via the social media platform, the company's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, said in a statement.
Facebook has turned over its findings to federal authorities investigating Russian interference in the US presidential election.
Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is charged with probing Russian meddling in the US election and working out if there was any coordination with associates of President Donald Trump.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that Facebook briefed the panel's staff on Wednesday, but he still wants to know more.
He said: "I have a lot more questions for Facebook, and I've got a lot of questions for Twitter."
In many cases the social media messaging "was more about voter depression and suppression without having to necessarily mention an individual candidate's name."
He said a meeting with Twitter would take place "soon."
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Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Facebook's disclosure confirmed what many lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the US election had long suspected.
"One of the things that we're interested obviously in finding out is whether there was any coordination in terms of the use of those paid social media trolls or the Russian use of bots," he said.
The fake accounts were discovered during a company review of ad buys that was spurred by a broader investigation the company initiated into Russian meddling after the election, Stamos said.
In addition to the 470 accounts that appeared to be run from Russia, Stamos said its investigators also discovered an additional $50,000 (£38,000) in spending via 2,200 ads that "might have originated in Russia," even including ads purchased by accounts with IP addresses in the U.S. but set to Russian in the language settings.
Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who represents California, who also serves on the House Intelligence Committee, said Facebook's disclosures help to "fill in with more colour some of the lines that exist," but he would like to know more about the sophistication of the ads.
"We know they had a cyber operation, we suspect US persons may have been involved, now we know a US company was used. So now we need to see if there are dots that connect," he said.
The company has come under intense pressure since the election to curb the flow of false information. After the election, it updated its advertising policy to say it wouldn't run spots that are "illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news."
