The public will soon be able to see the approximately 3,000 Facebook ads a Russian company is believed to have purchased during the 2016 election.
The House Intelligence Committee is reportedly going to release the Facebook ads after congressional hearing with social media figures in November.
The suspected Russian-linked ads focused on immigration issues, with one page called, “Secured Borders.” Others focused on racial issues like Black Lives Matter, with one page called “Blacktivist” suspected of being linked to the Kremlin.
LGBT issues, veterans issues, and Islamophobia were also highlighted. American Muslims were shown Russian content that claimed to show anti-Muslim discrimination. One page called “United Muslims of America” displayed memes that were anti-American and anti-Israel. (RELATED: Russia Exploited Key Element Of Modern American Politics)
However, the reach of such ads may have been minimal. Most of those who viewed the ads saw them after election day 2016. (RELATED: Russian-Linked Ads Didn’t Reach Most Facebook Users Until AFTER Election Day)
Moreover, Russian ads were a very small percentage of political ads on Facebook, and made up only 0.0000037% of Facebook’s 2016 ad revenue. (RELATED: Russian Election Ads Made Up 0.0000037% Of Facebook’s 2016 Ad Revenue, 0.00027% Of Political Ads)