Russian Internet Research Agency begins Facebook ad campaign to influence U.S. politics

Timeline Eventconfirmed
foreign-influenceelection-manipulationrussian-interferencefacebook-ads
Legislative CaptureIntelligence PenetrationElectoral Manipulation
Actors:Internet Research Agency, Facebook, Yevgeny Prigozhin
2015-06-01 · 1 min read

The St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency began purchasing Facebook ads and running coordinated influence operations. Senate Intelligence Committee reports and platform disclosures document spending (about $100,000 on ~3,000 ads) and reach in the tens of millions between 2015 and 2017.

Sources

  1. Senate Intel—Russia's Use of Social Media (Vol. 2)U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence(2019-10-08)
  2. Hard Questions—Russian Ads Delivered to CongressMeta (Facebook) Newsroom(2017-10-02)
  3. Facebook says likely Russian-based operation funded U.S. adsReuters(2017-09-06)