Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released more than 3,000 Facebook ads that ran from 2015 to 2017, which were bought by Russias Internet Research Agency.
The agency used the ads to promote political chaos and damage to the countrys democracy, according to Congress.
The ads appeared on both Facebook and Instagram.
You can see all the ads here. You can download the ads, which take 7.9 gigabytes of data.
The ads portray a mixed set of political bias. Some denounce then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, while others insult Hillary Clinton.
Many of the ads, placed by Russians posing as Americans, didn't endorse a specific candidate but spread inflammatory messages on sensitive subjects such as immigration and race to amplify fault lines in American life, targeting users from specific backgrounds and tight races in key states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia, according to USA Today.
Congress released small portions of the posts last year. About 11 million people saw the 3,000 ads. In fact, nearly 120 million Americans may have been exposed to the organic posts that were not posted as ads, too, CNN reported.
Congress hopes releasing the ads will help people stay safe in the future.
"The only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves against a future attack is to see first-hand the types of messages, themes and imagery the Russians used to divide us," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, according to Axios.
"Ultimately, by exposing these advertisements, we hope to better protect legitimate political expression and discussions and better safeguard Americans from having their information ecosystem polluted by foreign adversaries," Schiff wrote in a statement, according to Wired. We will continue to work with Facebook and other tech companies to expose additional content, advertisements, and information as our investigation progresses.
According to CNN, the IRA was accused of taking sides in its use of ads. Though it's clear they had both pro-Trump and pro-Clinton ads, an indictment against the IRA said the group was told to "use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump we support them)."
The agency used the ads to promote political chaos and damage to the countrys democracy, according to Congress.
The ads appeared on both Facebook and Instagram.
You can see all the ads here. You can download the ads, which take 7.9 gigabytes of data.
The ads portray a mixed set of political bias. Some denounce then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, while others insult Hillary Clinton.
Many of the ads, placed by Russians posing as Americans, didn't endorse a specific candidate but spread inflammatory messages on sensitive subjects such as immigration and race to amplify fault lines in American life, targeting users from specific backgrounds and tight races in key states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia, according to USA Today.
Congress released small portions of the posts last year. About 11 million people saw the 3,000 ads. In fact, nearly 120 million Americans may have been exposed to the organic posts that were not posted as ads, too, CNN reported.
Congress hopes releasing the ads will help people stay safe in the future.
"The only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves against a future attack is to see first-hand the types of messages, themes and imagery the Russians used to divide us," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, according to Axios.
"Ultimately, by exposing these advertisements, we hope to better protect legitimate political expression and discussions and better safeguard Americans from having their information ecosystem polluted by foreign adversaries," Schiff wrote in a statement, according to Wired. We will continue to work with Facebook and other tech companies to expose additional content, advertisements, and information as our investigation progresses.
According to CNN, the IRA was accused of taking sides in its use of ads. Though it's clear they had both pro-Trump and pro-Clinton ads, an indictment against the IRA said the group was told to "use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump we support them)."
