CYBERWAR/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA: “Facebook Inc. on Monday [10-2-17] said it estimates 10 million people saw ads it has discovered on its platform paid for by Russian entities, but warned that it may not have uncovered all malicious activity that attempted to interfere in the American political process.
The revelation from Facebook quantifies for the first time the spread of the known Russian activity since the social network said last month it had identified 470 ‘inauthentic’ Russian-backed accounts responsible for $100,000 in advertising spending. Facebook on Monday presented congressional investigators with data on 3,000 ads bought by the Russian actors before and after the U.S. presidential election.
About half of the ads were seen after the election, Facebook said, and one quarter were never shown to anyone. Half of the ads cost less than $3 to run…
The accounts behind the 5,200 Russian-backed ads represented both sides of the political spectrum, and attempted to drive clicks and follows. ‘Secured Borders,’ for example, often railed against illegal immigration, while ‘Blacktivist’ was more aligned with the Black Lives Matters movement. A source with knowledge of the pages confirmed their authenticity.”
-Georgia Wells and Natalie Andrews, “Facebook Estimates 10 Million Users Saw Russian-Backed Ads,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 2, 2017 08:06pm