Scope Widens of Russian Facebook Ad Buys

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Facebook announced last Thursday that it will turn over 3,000 political ads to Congress that were purchased by Russian accounts during the 2016 election. Facebook has been slow in acknowledging growing evidence that Russian actors targeted the platform to influence U.S. voters.

Neither Facebook nor U.S. intelligence agencies understood the threat fake news posed to the election. Facebook went so far as to tell CNN in July that “we have seen no evidence that Russian actors bought ads on Facebook in connection with the election.”

To make matters worse for Facebook, the Washington Post is reporting that Facebook was aware before the election that Russian government hackers had been using the platform. President Obama even personally appealed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prior to Trump’s inauguration in November.

Facebook has since struggled on how to manage a widespread problem like this without limiting users’ rights. But Zuckerberg’s decision to turn over the ads marks the first, tangible public acknowledgement of the problem on Facebook’s behalf. After the election, Zuckerberg scoffed at the idea that Russians had effectively spread propaganda via Facebook, calling it “crazy.”