Some of the ads posted to Facebook by Russia-affiliated groups ahead of the U.S. presidential election were recently published by the House Intelligence Committee.
The release follows a confirmation earlier this week from Facebook that organizations controlled by the Russian government posted more than 80,000 times reaching as many as 126 million Americans with its advertisements. Facebook, Google and Twitter have all been testifying before Congress in Washington, D.C. this week as lawmakers try to discover how each company allowed Russian influence and whether or not there needs to be more regulation of tech companies.
The ads released by the House Intelligence Committee feature posts for anti-Hillary gatherings, support for Black Lives Matter, anti-Black Lives Matter messages and an ad that calls for Facebook users to disavow Hillary Clinton and to support trump.
Alone, the ads don’t appear to look much different than what you’re probably used to seeing on Facebook. But the contradictory messages across them suggest the Russian government was trying to exacerbate political divisions in the U.S. population.
Here are some of the ads Russia was posting to Facebook