An enormous amount of Facebook advertising bought by Russian groups during the 2016 American elections sought to instill divisions and discord on racial issues. And the closer we got to the election date, the more the ads insisted on this topic.
This was reported by the USA Today newspaper which analyzed the more than 3500 advertisement (ads) published by the American Congress last Thursday. Last week, the Democrats released the advertisements bought by the Internet Research Agency, the so-called "troll factory" sponsored by the Kremlin, held responsible for much of the Russian disinformation campaign in action in the United States especially in 2016.
Analysis by USA Today indicates that out of 3500 ads, 1950 referred to racial themes; and would have been seen 25 million times. A quarter of the advertisements instead referred to crime or public order issues, often still with a racial connotation. Advertising purchased by the IRA often carried divergent messages, for example against the police or in favor.
The racially motivated ads did not end with Trump's election, however, but continued afterwards until May 2017. USA Today also found ads related to immigration or weapons. While those who openly supported Trump or opposed Hillary Clinton would have been a minority, about a hundred.
In February, special prosecutor Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians for ties to the IRA, accused of being "involved in operations to interfere in American elections and political trials".