Facebook said on Wednesday that it had found that an influence operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May. The ads spread polarizing views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights, instead of backing a particular political candidate, it said. Beyond the issue ads, Facebook said it uncovered $50,000 more in overtly political advertising that might have a link to Russia. More than $1bn was spent on digital political ads during the 2016 presidential campaign, 10,000 times the amount identified by Facebook’s security team. In other words: it is entirely possible to swing an election using Facebook advertising, but it doesn’t seem like this Russian “influence operation” was effective.

Source: The Guardian September 06, 2017 21:11 UTC