‘Pro-Beyoncé’ vs. ‘Anti-Beyoncé’: 3,500 Facebook ads show the scale of Russian manipulation

The following article by Tony Romm was posted on the Washington Post website May 10, 2018:

Russian-backed Facebook ads sought to influence the American democratic process from abroad. (Joyce Koh, Deirdra O’Regan/The Washington Post)

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released about 3,500 Facebook adspurchased by Russian agents around the 2016 presidential election on issues from immigration to gun control, a reminder of the complexity of the manipulation that Facebook is trying to contain ahead of the midterm elections.

The ads, from mid-2015 to mid-2017, illustrate the extent to which Kremlin-aligned forces sought to stoke social, cultural and political unrest on one of the Web’s most powerful platforms. With the help of Facebook’s targeting tools, they delivered their disinformation to narrow categories of users – from black or gay users to fans of Fox News. Continue reading “‘Pro-Beyoncé’ vs. ‘Anti-Beyoncé’: 3,500 Facebook ads show the scale of Russian manipulation”