Here are the Russian-made Facebook ads that tried to shake American politics

Just one example of a Russian-created Facebook ad used in the run-up to the 2016 election. (credit: House Committee on Intelligence)

On Thursday morning, the House of Representatives' Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a vast trove of thousands of Russian-bought Facebook and Instagram ads designed to sow doubt among the American population in the run-up to the November 2016 presidential election. The committee had promised to publish the ads late last year.

While a limited number of ads had been released previously, the new cache reveals a scale and scope previously unseen.

According to the committee, there were 3,393 advertisements purchased, which were seen by more than 11.4 million Americans. The Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency created 470 Facebook pages, which made "80,000 pieces of organic content" seen by more than 126 million Americans.

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