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Here are the Russia-linked Facebook ads released by Congress

Here are the Russia-linked Facebook ads released by Congress

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As part of this week’s hearings into how Russia has used social media to influence American opinion, House lawmakers released several Facebook and Instagram ads linked to Kremlin meddling online. Although lawmakers have not yet released the full cache of ads, which includes about 3,000 examples provided to Congress by Facebook, the so-far disclosed ads offer one of the closest looks yet at the Russian operation.

In one example, a group named “Defend the 2nd” was promoted on the service, described as a “ community of 2nd Amendment supporters, guns lovers & patriots.”

Another, for a page called “Blacktivist,” appeared in a post with the description, “Black Panthers were dismantled by US government because they were black men and women standing up for justice and equality.”

Another advertised under the name “Secured Borders.” “Every man should stand for our borders!” it said. “Join!”

One group called “Stop AI” — an abbreviation for “stop all invaders” — advertised against face coverings, saying they “should be banned in every state across America.”

In another example, a group called LGBT United was created, and advertised for a Westboro Baptist Church counter-protest. Metadata also disclosed shows that ad was paid for at a cost of more than 3,000 rubles, and was targeted toward the LGBT community in Kansas, as well as users who showed interest in Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The ad made about 4,800 impressions, a metric Facebook uses to gauge how many people may have seen the ad.

The same account promoted a pro-Bernie Sanders coloring book.

Other examples show ads targeted to Trump supporters as well. An Instagram account called “_american.made” promoted a post that targeted users interested in the Trump family, and encouraged users to post with the hashtag #KIDS4TRUMP. The account also promoted Florida Trump rallies.

A “Donald Trump America” page even linked to a petition calling for the “disqualification and removal of Hillary Clinton from the presidential ballot.”

One post described a fight — a literal one — between Hillary Clinton and Jesus.

Lawmakers also disclosed a 65-page list of Twitter handles that were determined to be linked to Russian government activity. Most appeared to be simple names of people, although some strange accounts, such as an account acting as a 30 Seconds to Mars fan page, appear on the list.

The ads release by the House committee were the last in a trickle of examples Congress used during its two-day-long grilling of Facebook, Twitter, and Google. In one case highlighted earlier by Sen. Richard Burr, the accounts appeared to organize both sides of a protest in front of an Islamic Center.

Although lawmakers described the ads as a “representative sample,” the released examples were not the full trove of Facebook ads. Earlier this month, lawmakers suggested they would publicly show the complete 3,000 ads that Facebook had delivered to Congress as part of its internal investigation into Russian influence.

In a memo included with the documents, the House intelligence committee said it was “continuing to work with the social media companies to scrub personally identifiable information (PII) in the goal of releasing all advertisements and content identified by the companies and turned over [to] the Committee.”