Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are preparing to release 3,000 Russia-linked Facebook ads, people familiar with the matter said. The release would offer the broadest picture yet of how the social network was manipulated during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
According to some of the sources, the ads which had been bought by the pro-Kremlin Internet Research Agency could be released as early as this week. However, as Facebook and Democrats can’t seem to agree on how much information is to be redacted, it could be delayed to next week or even later. The people added that the cache will show the images of the ads, which groups the ads targeted, how much they cost and how many Facebook users viewed them.
“We have been in ongoing discussions with Facebook and hope to have the final redacted ads in our possession within a matter of days,” said Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel. “As soon as we receive them, it is our intention to share them with the public.”
Several weeks ago, Republicans on the committee concluded their probe into Russian activity during the 2016 presidential election, maintaining that there were no signs of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Back in September, Facebook identified 470 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency that bought the 3,000 ads during a two-year period aimed at recruiting new followers to fake organizations’ Facebook pages or encouraging them to attend politically charged events. They also targeted Facebook users by race, religion and interests.
According to people familiar with the discussions, Schiff is leading the negotiations with Facebook over the ad release. He has sought to make public all the ads the committee was given last year but has said the release of such information raised privacy considerations.
If the ads were released, that would be the last move by the committee’s Democrats, who have vowed to continue their investigation, in their attempt to prove the panel’s report was inadequate.
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