Facebook identifies 5% of ads purchased on Instagram to influence 2016 election

Facebook identified 150 ads bought by Russian-linked accounts on Instagram to interfere in the last year presidential election, Fox News reported. The company has already provided the information of 3000 ads purchased from Russian fake accounts, for which more than $100,000 was spent by the Russian agency to Congress. Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, paying $1 billion in cash and stock.

A statement of Facebook's VP

On Friday, Elliot Schrage, the vice president of Facebook's policy and communication, revealed that about $6,700 was spent on 5% ads purchased from Russian fake accounts on Instagram. Schrage said that around 10 million people had seen such advertisements, but 25% ads had never appeared in the public, according to BBC.

Earlier, Facebook said that the main aim of the Russian interference was to spread the political and social divisive messages around the U.S. They were focused on such issues as Black Lives Matter, LGBT topics, immigration, and ammunition.

Schrage mentioned in his blog post that 44 percent of the ads were shown before the 2016 Election, and remaining 56 percent appeared after the election.

He also added that less than $3 were spent on 50% ads and less than $1000 on 99%.

Facebook's strict changes

Recently, Facebook has done some changes in its advertising programs, adding strict rules in choosing ads destination and other information, especially related to politics and religion. The company also added that it would hire 1000 employees to review the ads. It announced that many of the ads did not violate its policies. Special counsel Rober Muller is investigating the Russian meddling in the last year US election.

Twitter has also shared the information of similar ads purchased on its network and agreed to testify its evidence in Congressional hearings. Google, which previously denied Russian interference on its network, recently uncovered the Russian-linked accounts used to purchase ads on its network.

Russian agents affected YouTube, Gmail and Google's search advertisements system, according to BBC.

Google said, "We are taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems." The company has also added strict policies on its advertising programs, adding limits on political ads, race, and religion. Senate and the Intelligence House committees invited the three tech giants to testify their information.