By Deepa Seetharaman and Byron Tau
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are preparing to
release 3,000 Russia-linked Facebook ads, according to people
familiar with the matter, in what would offer the broadest picture
yet of how the social network was manipulated during and after the
2016 U.S. presidential election.
The ads, which Facebook Inc. identified as bought by the
pro-Kremlin Internet Research Agency, could be released as early as
this week, some of the people said. But the timing could slip to
next week or later as Facebook and Democrats haggle over how much
information about users who liked, shared and commented on the ads
should be redacted, the people said.
The cache will show the images of the ads, which groups the ads
targeted, how much they cost and how many Facebook users viewed
them, the people said.
"We have been in ongoing discussions with Facebook and hope to
have the final redacted ads in our possession within a matter of
days. As soon as we receive them, it is our intention to share them
with the public," Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat
on the panel, said in a statement.
The discussions to release the ads comes weeks after Republicans
on the committee ended their probe into Russia's activity during
the 2016 election. The report concluded that there were no signs of
collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, angering
Democrats who said the investigation was far from over.
In September, Facebook identified 470 accounts linked to the
Internet Research Agency, who bought the 3,000 ads during a
two-year period intended to amplify social and political tensions
during and after the 2016 presidential election. The disclosure
triggered public outrage, forcing representatives from Facebook,
Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google to appear in front of
Congress on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 for three hearings on Russian
manipulation of social media.
Data released by lawmakers during the hearings show many of the
ads served to recruit new followers to Facebook pages of fake
organizations or encourage them to attend politically charged
events, and targeted Facebook users by race, religion and
interests.
The company didn't make the ads public at the time. Instead
Facebook handed the ads over to Congress, which made fewer than 50
of the ads available to the public. At the time, some lawmakers
vowed to release all 3,000 to make Americans more aware of the
Russian manipulation.
Facebook has said that many of the ads didn't mention either
candidate and instead targeted users who liked pages affiliated
with gun ownership, the Confederate flag and Ivanka Trump's jewelry
line.
One of the Russia-backed pages, "Back the Badge," ran an ad
meant to reach law-enforcement personnel and their spouses, as well
as pages memorializing officers who had been killed. The ad, which
ran in October 2016, was seen more than 1.3 million times.
Another page, "Woke Blacks," targeted people who are interested
in "African-American culture" and the civil-rights movement. The ad
promoting the "Woke Blacks" page was seen more than 750,000 times,
according to data released last fall. Facebook has said about 25%
of the ads were never shown to any users.
Mr. Schiff is leading the negotiations with Facebook over the ad
release, people familiar with the discussions said. Mr. Schiff has
sought to make public all the ads the committee was given but has
said the release of such information raised privacy
considerations.
"The American people deserve to see the ways that the Russian
intelligence services manipulated and took advantage of online
platforms to stoke and amplify social and political tensions, which
remains a tactic we see the Russian government rely on today," Mr.
Schiff said in October.
"We have been in ongoing discussions with Facebook and hope to
have the final redacted ads in our possession within a matter of
days," Mr. Schiff said through a spokesman Sunday. "As soon as we
receive them, it is our intention to share them with the
public."
Releasing the ads would be the latest move by the Democrats on
the committee who said the panel's report, made public in April,
was inadequate. They have vowed to continue the investigation on
their own, and they have pushed the committee's Republican
leadership to release all the transcripts of witness interviews,
without any success so far.
The use of Facebook for possible election manipulation by
foreign governments has come under scrutiny in Congress, which is
considering bipartisan legislation to bring more transparency to
political ad spending.
The Wall Street Journal has found that Facebook, Twitter and
other major U.S. tech companies have yet to provide to the public
all the details of Russian troll activity on their platforms
despite their pledge to tackle the problem and pressure from some
lawmakers.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that social media was part
of a Kremlin-backed campaign designed to boost Donald Trump during
the 2016 campaign using disinformation, data thefts and leaks.
Intelligence agencies laid out their conclusion in a 2017 report.
Mr. Trump denies any collusion between his campaign and Russia.
Moscow has denied any election interference.
In February, a Facebook ad executive sparked a backlash for
saying on Twitter that the main goal of the Russian ads wasn't to
swing the election. Facebook said Mr. Goldman was stating his own
views, and he later apologized to colleagues.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com and
Byron Tau at byron.tau@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2018 21:43 ET (01:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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