Here Are Thousands Of Russian Facebook Ads You May Have Seen

WASHINGTON, DC — Lawmakers in the House have released more than 3,500 political ads on social media that Russia unleashed on unsuspecting Americans to sway opinions — and elections. The advertisements ranged from attacks on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama to anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant messages to simple, innocuous memes.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released the Russian-bought ads Thursday. The trove of ads begins in mid-2015 and extends through mid-2017. The ads, many containing incendiary or inflammatory messages, were targeted to users based on their interests. A user who liked Malcom X, for example, would receive ads revolving around racism, police shootings of black men and causes similar to the Black Lives Matter movement.

One account, supported by the Kremlin-sponsored troll farm Internet Research Agency, posted an advertisement on Instagram about white nationalism and targeted people interested in the "black voices” section of the Huffington Post, The Washington Post reported. The ultimate goal: sow discord into the American electorate.

Indeed, in a February indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian groups, special counsel Robert Mueller says the IRA members posed as Americans — sometimes even stealing their identities — and ran social media pages and groups that aimed to grow in audiences. They would continuously stoke hot-button political and social issues and lied to followers by saying the accounts were controlled by American activists.

"Over time, these social media accounts became Defendants’ means to reach significant numbers of Americans for purposes of interfering with the U.S. political system, including the presidential election of 2016," the indictment alleges.

Here is a sampling of some of the ads:

• “What will happen if Hitlery becomes President,” questioned a sponsored post by the group Heart of Texas, Axios reported. “Let's remind them what Texas is made of and show that we're ready to SECEDE!”
• "We insist over and over again. Black Lives Matter is a radical hate group and its violent actions must be stopped And we're glad to know that our police officials are on our side on that issue," declared another ad from the group Being Patriotic.
• "About $190 billion dollars are spent each year on illegal aliens for welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. Are leftists still sure that illegal immigration improves our economy?" This one targeted people who had an interest in conservatism, the Tea Party or the Republican party.
• "I was blasting the pokemon theme song from my car, driving to the park to look for pokemon," another ad said. This one targeted teens as young as 14 and adults up to 40 who were interested in "Funny Photo's," "Funy Pictures," "LOL" or "Funny Pics."

More than 11 million American users were exposed to the advertisements, the committee said.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California says lawmakers will continue investigating Russian meddling.

He said in a statement: “They sought to harness Americans’ very real frustrations and anger over sensitive political matters in order to influence American thinking, voting and behavior. 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.”

You can see and download all of the ads here.

Photo credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images