Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will release the content of advertisements bought by Russian agency to influence the 2016 U.S. election, CNBC reported. Zuckerberg published a video on his Facebook page, describing all the steps that will be taken to help the US government in the Russian meddling.

Zuckerberg said that the company had already shut down thousands of fake Russian accounts that had been used to interfere in the US and French elections. He said that Facebook will strengthen its ad review process for political advertisements.

Mark commitment over Russian meddling

"I do not want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy," the head of the company said, noting that the investigation had been lasting over several months. At the same time, Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook could not find evidence of linkage of fake accounts with Russian advertising. The head of the social network expressed hope that the authorities would publish the results of their work upon the completion of the investigation. He also added that "We won't catch everyone immediately, but we can make it harder to try to interfere."

Vice President of Facebook's policy and communications Elliot Schrage described the investigation as extraordinary. "We have concluded that sharing the ads we’ve discovered with Congress will help government authorities complete the vitally important work of assessing," Schrage said.

According to Schrage, the data will not be published to the public, as it prohibits the federal law.

Russians spent thousands of dollars on ads

According to Facebook, an internal review revealed that $100,000 had been spent on 3,000 ads before and after the U.S. presidential election in 2016. The transactions were possibly made from the territory of the Russian Federation.

Special counsel Robert Muller is examining the case with the United States investigators. Twitter's representative will meet with the investigators next week for inquiries related to the last year election, Reuters reported.

Previously, Facebook announced the purchase of advertisements by "Russian bots" during the presidential campaign in the United States in order to influence the outcome of the race. Russian press secretary Dmitry Peskov claimed that Moscow is not responsible for it. Moscow has repeatedly refuted allegations of attempts to influence the outcome of the US presidential election.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED