Five Facebook Ads Designed to Divide America at Russia’s Behest
Facebook Finds Itself at Center of Russia Investigation
This week Facebook Inc. turned over to Congress 3,000 ads purchased by groups linked to Russia that were designed to disrupt the 2016 U.S. election and further divide an already polarized nation. Congress and Facebook haven’t yet released the ads to the public, but in recent days various published reports have described the ads and the fake Facebook groups said to be linked to Moscow’s sprawling disinformation operation. Here’s a roundup:
Operatives traced to the Russian government created a Facebook group called United Muslims of America, the Daily Beast reported. The group published outlandish claims designed to divide. Among them: that Hillary Clinton admitted the U.S. backed, funded and armed al-Qaeda and the Islamic State; that Senator John McCain founded ISIS; that Osama bin Laden was a CIA agent. All false. The group bought Facebook ads in an attempt to radicalize American Muslims and simultaneously created other accounts spouting Islamophobic messages to turn other citizens against them.