Russian Facebook ads featured anti-immigrant messages, puppies, women with rifles

Enlarge (credit: Photo by Sergei KonkovTASS via Getty Images)

Monday, Facebook handed over some 3,000 ads, which it believes were bought by Russia, to congressional investigators. While they haven't been made public, more information is coming out about the ads, accounts, and pages that were said to be controlled by a Russian "troll farm" called the Internet Research Agency.

Many of the ads weren't supporting specific candidates, but rather seem meant to stoke division around flash points in American society, particularly around immigration and race relations. 470 different pages and profiles were linked to the Internet Research Agency, according to Facebook.

The Washington Post reported that one of the ads featured pictures of a black woman "dry firing" a rifle with no ammunition in it. It isn't clear what the ad was promoting. The New York Times found a wide variety of groups, including a fiery "Defend the 2nd" gun-rights group, a gay rights group called "LGBT United," and even an animal lovers' page with pictures of puppies.

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