Artículo Russia-backed Facebook content 'reached 126m Americans' in run-up to election News

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Russia-backed Facebook content 'reached 126m Americans' in run-up to election

Tech giant Facebook is expected to reveal evidence that fake Russian pages reached millions of US voters

Anna Freeman

31 Octubre 2017 13:50

Amid the fast-moving revelations yesterday that two of Donald Trump’s top campaign aides were indicted by the FBI over their dealings with Russia, Facebook has revealed that Russian-backed content reached as many as 126 million Americans in the run-up to the US elections.

The tech giant’s prepared testimony submitted to the Senate judiciary committee alleges the company believes 120 fake Russian-backed pages created 80,000 posts that directly engaged 29 million US voters. However, given the nature of social media sites encouraging users to share and like online material, the actual number reached was far higher.

Facebook will share their findings with the Senate judiciary committee today. The testimony follows yesterday’s dramatic revelations from the FBI’s probe into Russian election interference. Special counsel Robert Mueller ordered the indictments of three officials, including two of Trump’s top campaign aides.

George Papadopolous, the former foreign policy adviser, was revealed to have pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to FBI investigators over his previous contact with two people who have close ties with the Russian government.

Meanwhile, Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and a business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty to an indictment for money laundering, tax evasion, failure to register as agents for foreign interests and conspiracy to defraud the US government.

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