Russia's online ads designed to stoke U.S.' social divide

One of the Russian-bought advertisements that Facebook shared with congressional investigators on Monday featured photographs of an armed black woman "dry firing" a rifle -- pulling the trigger of the weapon without a bullet in the chamber, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Investigators believe the advertisement may have been designed to encourage black militancy and, at the same time, to stoke fears within white communities, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe. But the precise purpose of the ad remains unclear to investigators, the people said.

The apparent tactic underscores how the Russians used U.S.-based technology platforms to target Americans with highly tailored and sometimes-contradictory messages to exploit divisions in American society over the past two years.

The ad was among more than 3,000 delivered to congressional investigators that the company says were bought by 470 accounts and pages controlled by a Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, based in St. Petersburg.

[RUSSIA REPORT: Documents on Russian interference in election ]

The full universe of words and images in those ads has not yet been made public, but early glimpses reported in The Washington Post and other news outlets showed that the Russian campaign frequently sought to widen existing fractures in American society, while also helping to boost Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Among the other Facebook ads shared with lawmakers are those featuring photos of Hillary Clinton behind what appear to be prison bars. This echoed calls by Trump and his supporters during campaign events to "Lock Her Up"-- imprison Clinton for using a private email server while she was secretary of state.

The Russian disinformation campaign included ads with harsh language and imagery about illegal aliens. Others highlighted civil-rights groups such as Black Lives Matter and support among Muslim voters for Clinton.

"These ads are racist propaganda, pure and simple," said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter activist in Oakland, Calif., and executive director for the nonprofit Center for Media Justice. "Whether they appear to be in support or in opposition to black civil rights is irrelevant. Their aim is to subvert democracy for everyone by using anti-black stereotypes -- an idea as old as America."

The tools developed by Facebook and other American companies in recent years have given advertisers unprecedented power to identify people susceptible to their messages and to repeatedly deliver targeted advertisements to them over weeks or months as they browse the Internet.

The release to Congress is part of a widening government probe into how Russian operatives used Facebook, Twitter, Google and other technology platforms. Those companies have come under increasing pressure from Capitol Hill to investigate Russian meddling and are facing the possibility of new regulations that could affect their advertising businesses.

In addition to sharing the ads, Facebook is providing information to lawmakers about which users those ads targeted, the views and clicks the ads received, and the methods of payment used by the Russian operatives, said people familiar with the investigation. The ads were viewed tens of millions of times, people familiar with the investigation said.

"The big picture is that we're stepping up tomorrow to help Congress understand foreign interference on the ad platform and to make improvements to the ad platform to enhance transparency," Joel Kaplan, Facebook's vice president for U.S. public policy, said in an interview Sunday. "We're committed to doing our part to prevent this type of malicious interference."

The company has acknowledged that many of the ads posted by the Russian operatives to sow cultural divisions would not be covered by new safeguards that would apply to ads that mention candidates.

Facebook has said most of the ads bought by the 470 pages and accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency focused on social issues and did not name candidates.

The company also said it would disclose more information about political ads on Facebook and was adding security measures to crack down on foreign meddling in its ad systems.

Information for this article was contributed by Matea Gold and Greg Miller of The Washington Post.

A Section on 10/03/2017

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