Representatives from Facebook informed it congress that they were accidentally selling advertising space to Russian operatives seeking to influence the 2016 US presidential election. social network, after an investigation, was able to detect that he received $100.000 that came from fake Russian accounts.
Alex Stamos, Facebook Security Officer, has published an official statement detailing the search process:
“In reviewing the ads we made available, we found approximately $100.000 in ad spend from June 2015 to May 2017 – related to approximately 3.000 ads – linked to approximately 470 bogus accounts and pages that violate our policies. Our analysis indicates that these accounts and the Pages were linked to each other and possibly operated from Russia.”
While some of the ads clearly supported him Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, η δήλωση αναφέρει ότι η πλειοψηφία των διαφημίσεων επικεντρώθηκε σε αμφιλεγόμενα ζητήματα ψηφοφόρων, όπως ο control of guns, abortion and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights.
According to Alex Stamos, the purpose of these accounts when buying ads was to strengthen divisive messages.
Congressional investigators and special adviser Robert Mueller are currently examining Russian election interventions, and Facebook's representatives are working with the authorities to uncover the depths of the Kremlin's involvement.
According to Alex Stamos:
"We have shared our findings with the US authorities who are investigating these matters and will continue to work with them as necessary."
