Congress released some of the Facebook ads linked to Russian operatives in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, and they reveal a concerted effort to divide the US and vilify Hillary Clinton.
The ads targeted different cross-sections of the US population and often citizens at opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, released the trove on Wednesday before a hearing with Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
“Whether the Russians and Trump coordinated these efforts, we do not yet know, but it is true that the Russians mounted what could be described as an independent expenditure campaign on Trump’s behalf,” Schiff said.
"The Russians did so by weaving together fake accounts, pages, and communities to push politicized content and videos, and to mobilize real Americans to sign online petitions and join rallies and protests," Schiff said.
Some of the ads portrayed Clinton as an ally of Satan, promoted a US burqa ban, and hailed Trump as the "one and only who can defend the police from terrorists."
Take a look at the divisive ads below.
This ad ran as early as 2015.
People who are interested in Malcolm X, or whose behaviors indicated they are African American, were targeted by this ad.
This ad ran for three months and cost 14,600 rubles ($250).
Running the month before the election, the text said: "Donald Trump is the one and only who can defend the police from terrorists."
This post from December gained more than 13,000 likes.
People in Alabama, Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona that are interested in Confederate States of America or Dixie were shown this ad.
Down with Hillary was targeted to people who were in New York and whose interests included Donald Trump for President and Donald Trump Jr.
This ad targeted people who liked Facebook pages linked to religion, Republican politicians, and conservative politicians, such as "God," "Christianity," "Bible," "Jesus," "Ron Paul," and "Rush Limbaugh."
This ad, appearing to promote a Bernie Sanders coloring book, was catered to people who liked the "LGBT United" group and their Facebook friends.
The rest of the caption said: "The author of the book said that she wanted people to stop taking this whole thing too serious. The coloring is something that suits for all people.
I totally with agree with her! I've recently heard some hateful comments from the Hillary supporters about Bernie Sanders and his supporters, so I really love the idea of this color book. I think that Bernie would love it!"
A suggestion to like the "Woke Blacks" Facebook page was shown to people interested in "African-American culture" and the civil rights movement.
It was seen more than 750,000 times, the Wall Street Journal reported.
This ad for an anti-Trump protest was shown to people who liked the "BM" Facebook page, and their friends.
Some ads, like this one, promoted state pride.
This post, centered on Sanders' criticism of the Clinton Foundation, was targeted at people who liked the "Bernie Sanders" Facebook page.
"The Clinton Foundation is nothing more than an 'organized crime' at it's [sic] finest, in which we are investing our taxpayers' money," the rest of the ad went.
"So why are so many people going to vote for her? That's a secret for me. What's your opinion on that point?"
This ad was targeted to Instagram users in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina who liked Republican- or Trump-linked pages on Facebook.
