Russian Operatives Used Facebook Ads to Exploit America’s Racial and Religious Divisions
The Washington Post’s Adam Entous, Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin report that Facebook is preparing to turn over more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads to Congress, which sought to exploit social divisions in America during the 2016 election. They write, “The previously undisclosed ads suggest that the operatives worked off evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes. They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would appear in users’ news feeds – with the apparent goal of appealing to one audience and alienating another.” Entous, Timberg, and Dwoskin note that some of the ads were used to advance anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messages in certain geographic areas.