Yahoo Finance Facebook: Russians spent just 73p on adverts during Brexit campaign
Facebook has said Russian operatives spent just 97 cents (73p) on adverts targeted at British people during last year's Brexit vote.
Responding to an Electoral Commission investigation into Russian meddling in the EU Referendum, the social media giant said three adverts from the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency were seen just 200 times in the two months of the campaign.
In comparison, Russia spent $100,000 on Facebook adverts in the two years around the US election.
The adverts covered immigration, not the Brexit vote directly, and were only seen on four days. The figures appear to demonstrate that Russian interference on Facebook in the EU Referendum was much smaller than in the US.
"We strongly support the Commission’s efforts to regulate and enforce political campaign finance rules in the United Kingdom, and we take the Commission’s request very seriously," Facebook said in a letter to the Commission.
"Further to your request, we have examined whether any of the identified Internet Research Agency (IRA) pages or account profiles funded advertisements to audiences in the United Kingdom during the regulated period for the EU Referendum.
"We have determined that these accounts associated with the IRA spent a small amount of money ($0.97) on advertisements that delivered to UK audiences during that time.
"This amount resulted in three advertisements (each of which were also targeted to US audiences and concerned immigration, not the EU referendum) delivering approximately 200 impressions to UK viewers over four days in May 2016."
The ads specifically related to the IRA, which has been fingered as the main outlet for Kremlin-funded fake news and misinformation campaigns. It is unclear if other actors may have attempted to disrupt the vote.
The Commission has also demanded evidence from Twitter and Google on potential interference, while the House of Commons Digital, Culture Media and Sport Committee are also investigating.
Facebook has given the same information to the committee, while Twitter responded to the Electoral Commission last week.
