Facebook Sold Ads To Russian Accounts During Election

MENLO PARK, CA — Facebook reported Wednesday that it sold about $100,000 in political ads to "inauthentic" accounts and pages connected to Russian entities before and after the 2016 election. The company said it has reported the findings of its review to U.S. authorities, and the Washington Post reported that Facebook representatives met with congressional investigators to discuss the issue.

Though the ads were political in nature, the company said, most did not specifically mention the 2016 presidential election. Instead, they "appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights," Facebook said in a press release. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The ad spending came from about 470 accounts that the company says were "inauthentic." Facebook says these accounts have been shut down.

A separate prong of the company's investigation, which it began after the election when the extent of Russian influence in American politics began to receive widespread attention, found around $50,000 of political spending on ads that could have originated in Russia.

Watch: Facebook Ties $100,000 Of Sketchy Political Ad Buys To Russia

In January, the American intelligence community released a report on its finding that the Russian government engaged in an extensive subversive campaign to influence the 2016 election. The agencies agreed that the Kremlin's aim was to help Donald Trump win and make Hillary Clinton lose.

"We know we have to stay vigilant to keep ahead of people who try to misuse our platform," Facebook said in a statement. "We believe in protecting the integrity of civic discourse, and require advertisers on our platform to follow both our policies and all applicable laws. We also care deeply about the authenticity of the connections people make on our platform."

According to the report by the Washington Post, Facebook officials traced some of the ad sales to a Russian "troll farm known to support the Kremlin's agenda."

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Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images