Facebook Providing Russia-Linked Election Ads To Congress

(RTTNews) - Facebook (FB) announced Thursday it has agreed to release advertisements purchased by Russians in an effort to influence last year's election to congressional investigators.

A statement from Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch noted the social media giant found more than 3,000 ads addressing social and political issues that appear to have come from accounts associated with a Russian entity known as the Internet Research Agency.

Stretch said Facebook previously agreed to provide information related to those ads with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"Since then, some people have asked why we aren't sharing the content of the ads more broadly," Stretch said, "After an extensive legal and policy review, today we are announcing that we will also share these ads with congressional investigators."

He added, "We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election."

Stretch called the decision to release the content of the ads difficult but said Facebook concluded sharing the information can help provide a full accounting of what happened in the election.

The news of the move by Facebook comes amid the ongoing investigation of Russian efforts to influence the election and possible collusion with President Donald Trump's campaign.