CYBERWAR/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA: “Google has found evidence that Russian agents bought ads on its wide-ranging networks in an effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential campaign.
Using accounts believed to be connected to the Russian government, the agents purchased $4,700 worth of search ads and more traditional display ads, according to a person familiar with the company’s ongoing internal investigation who was not allowed to speak about it publicly…
The search giant has been called to testify at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Nov. 1. It has so far escaped the intense scrutiny confronting Facebook after the social network admitted that it discovered 470 profiles and pages to a Russian company with ties to the Kremlin. Facebook also said the pages had placed 3,000 ads on its network at a cost of about $100,000.
Google is the only company that sells more digital advertising than Facebook, and its role in the coordinated Russian campaign has been closely followed. The Washington Post reported earlier that Google has found that Russian agents hoping to spread misinformation had spent tens of thousands of dollars on the company’s advertising platforms.”
-Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Google Finds Accounts Connected to Russia Bought Election Ads,” The New York Times online, Oct. 9, 2017