Russia and others buy advertisements on Facebook to influence Western discourse after the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
Russian actors have continued to purchase ads on Facebook – at times circumventing the platform’s terms of service – such as in early 2019 when accounts linked to Russian state broadcaster Sputnik purchased $135,000 worth of ads targeted at users primarily in Eastern and Central Europe. Entities in other countries have also begun imitating this method of interference.