Facebook Identifies $100,000 In Ad Spending By Fake Accounts With Suspected Ties to Russia
September 06 2017 - 5:17PM
Dow Jones News
By Shane Harris and Byron Tau
WASHINGTON -- Facebook Inc. said it has identified about 500
"inauthentic" accounts responsible for $100,000 in advertising
spending that it believes have ties to Russia, following a review
of ad buying on the site in response to intelligence-community
concerns about Russian activity during the 2016 election.
Facebook said the ads identified by the social-media giant
didn't typically reference any particular political candidate.
Rather, the company review found that they focused on "amplifying
divisive social and political messages across the ideological
spectrum -- touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to
immigration to gun rights."
The spending spanned from June 2015 to May 2017, Facebook said.
While $100,000 spent over a two-year period is a small sum in
modern politics, the revelation could prompt further questions
about the scale and scope of Moscow's use of social media to
distribute propaganda.
Beyond the 470 fake accounts responsible for the spending, the
company found another $50,000 in political ad spending by accounts
associated with U.S. internet addresses but with the language set
to Russian. It is a violation of Facebook policy to create an
"inauthentic accounts" on the platform.
The company revealed its findings in a blog post on Wednesday
and said that it was in touch with U.S. investigators about the
matter. Russian interference in the U.S. election is being probed
by several congressional committees, as well as the Federal Bureau
of Investigation under the direction of Special Counsel Robert
Mueller.
According to a January report from the U.S. intelligence
community, the highest levels of the Russian government were
involved in directing the electoral interference in order to boost
President Donald Trump at the expense of his Democratic rival
Hillary Clinton. Russia's tactics included efforts to hack state
election systems; infiltrating and leaking information from party
committees and political strategists; and disseminating through
social media and other outlets negative stories about Mrs. Clinton
and positive ones about the Mr. Trump, the report said.
Moscow has denied meddling in the U.S. election, and Mr. Trump
has denied his campaign colluded with Russia and has called the
investigations a "witch hunt."
Write to Shane Harris at shane.harris@wsj.com and Byron Tau at
byron.tau@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 06, 2017 17:02 ET (21:02 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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