Facebook found fake accounts used to interfere in 2016 elections

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he had long suspected the Russians covertly used social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to meddle in the election.

The social-networking giant has historically declined to reveal details about political ad spending on its network. The spokesperson also declined to say whether Facebook would reveal the ads publicly after Mueller's investigation was concluded.

"I do recall when I started raising these issues as early as last winter, they were pretty dismissive", Warner said.

"An American can still figure out what the content is being used in TV advertising".

Legislation or regulation may be needed to require Facebook Inc. and other social-media companies to prevent foreign adversaries from manipulating the feeds viewed by US citizens, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said. Numerous accounts were crudely designed and used stilted, awkward language, and many of their posts were not widely sharedthroughout social media. "So, you know, we may need a legislative solution".

"That would not be the jurisdiction of our committee", the senator from North Carolina said. Also, the majority of them ran in 2015, the year before the election, when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were still competing with other candidates in the primaries. Russian Federation has repeatedly denied the allegations.

"Due to both federal law and the fact that investigations are ongoing with the relevant authorities, we're unable to share the ads", a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider on Friday.

"I think what we saw yesterday in terms of their brief was the tip of the iceberg", Warner said. Google, the search engine which also owns video-sharing website YouTube, said on Thursday it had seen no evidence of an ad campaign like the one Facebook disclosed. Mueller is investigating whether there was any collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. "But by the time of the French elections, Facebook was working with the French" and they shut down 50,000 accounts.

"Does it reflect sophistication and coordination, or did they throw $100,000 at this just to try a bunch of stuff?" he said. It now applies to foreign nationals who "directly or indirectly" spend money "in connection with" any US election. Other ads fall into a legal gray area.

Television has been the backbone of political advertising for decades, and local US broadcasters are required to disclose a wealth of details about the cost and schedules of commercials. The ads can be seen by anyone with a television provided they are aired in their markets.

If Russia were found to have used front companies or loosely regulated US nonprofit groups to hide the source of funding while spreading fake or harshly critical news about Clinton over Facebook, then investigators would want to know whether any were targeted to swing states or districts crucial to Trump's upset victory.

In a blog post announcing the Russian ads on Wednesday, Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos said the company had shared its "findings with U.S. authorities investigating these issues".

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said after the November election that it was a "pretty insane idea" to think false news stories on the network tilted the election.

Facebook, on the other hand, is taking new steps to crack down on fake accounts.

"You can, from anywhere in the world, advertise to the entire world through the platform", said Nathan Persily, a Stanford University law professor.

Russia's use of social media is a focus of investigations into the Kremlin's massive, multipronged cyberattack by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller and the congressional intelligence committees.