Why won't Facebook show the public the propagandistic ads that a so-called Russian troll farm bought last year to target American voters?

That lack of transparency is troubling to many observers. "Show us the ads Zuck!" Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jason Calacanis wrote on Twitter when The Washington Post reported on the surreptitious ad buys on Wednesday.

Calacanis said Facebook was "profiting off fake news," echoing a widely held criticism of the social network.

It was only the latest example of Facebook's credibility problem. For a business based on the concept of friendship, it's proving to be a hard company to trust.

On the business side, Facebook's metrics for advertisers have been error-prone, to say the least. Analysts and reporters have repeatedly uncovered evidence of faulty data and measurement mistakes.

Facebook's opaqueness has also engendered mistrust in the political arena. Conservative activists have accused the company of censoring right-wing voices and stories. Liberal activists have raised alarms about its exploitation of personal information to target ads.

And the news business is worried about the spread of bogus stories and hoaxes on the site.

Some critics have even taken to calling Facebook a "surveillance company," seeking to reframe the business the social network is in -- not networking but ad targeting based on monitoring of users.

Related: Facebook's Russia problem: What we know

Facebook executives dispute that their site is a "black box" of secretive algorithms. And they say they've taken concrete actions to halt the spread of so-called fake news.

But some news industry executives don't trust that Facebook fully recognizes the problem. Inaccurate and just plain made-up information spreads virally across Facebook and other social networks every day.

The misleading advertising figures may be the best bottom-line illustration of Facebook's woes.

Brian Wieser, an analyst for Pivotal Research, reported this week that he found big disparities between the number of people Facebook claimed to reach through its Ad Manager platform and the actual populations.

According to the U.S. Census, there are 31 million people in the United States aged 18 to 24. Facebook's platform claims to be able to reach 41 million of them.

Related: Facebook under scrutiny for inflated ad reach in U.S.

"In media measurement issues there is no evidence that Facebook seeks to intentionally deceive anyone," Wieser told CNNMoney via email on Thursday. "And yet errors revealed in the past or issues like the one I wrote about (which might be characterized as unintentionally misleading) continue to pop up."

Wieser wrote: "The question is: is this sloppiness? Or a lack of focus? Or can it be pegged to reasonable challenges associated with managing a company that is both massive and still growing incredibly fast? One might then assume these issues play out elsewhere, as with the news about Russian-based propaganda." Facebook hasn't responded to a request for comment Thursday from CNNMoney.

On Wednesday, Facebook disclosed that it had discovered about 3,000 ads connected to 470 inauthentic accounts and pages, much of them purchased during the 2016 campaign. Facebook's chief security officer said they appeared to come from Russia.

The ads were meant to "sow discord" among voters by amplifying divisive messages about issues including race, immigration, guns and LGBT rights, Facebook said.

The disclosure, which came after the Post report, involved a relatively small amount of money -- about $100,000, according to the company.

But some analysts and lawmakers immediately wondered whether more details would come out later.

Facebook says it has provided information about the ad buys to investigators.

On the ad metrics front, Facebook has overpromised and underdelivered before. And the problem is not unique to Facebook: Other digital ad giants have come under scrutiny from ad buyers.

The only other one with the scale of Facebook is Google. The two companies are increasingly portrayed as a "digital duopoly," and trust issues are at the fore for both.</s>Nearly 500 accounts that likely originated in Russia purchased $100,000 in Facebook ads during the 2016 election, the social network said Wednesday.

"One question that has emerged is whether there’s a connection between the Russian efforts and ads purchased on Facebook," Alex Stamos, Facebook's Chief Security Adviser, wrote in a statement Wednesday . "In reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia."

The company said they had disclosed this information to U.S. authorities investigating Russian interference in the election.

Stamos said the company had shut down the remaining accounts that had still been active, but did not say when that had happened or how many had actually been active.

In the months following President Donald Trump's unexpected victory in the 2016 election, Facebook faced intense criticism, with some pundits speculating that Hillary Clinton's loss was partially due to the proliferation of "fake news" articles on the platform that emanated from Russia. But Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said arguments that fake news influenced the outcome of the election was a "crazy idea."

TIME reported in a May 2017 cover story that Russia had created a fake accounts on Facebook aimed to spread false stories and propaganda, and that agents in Moscow had bought ads as part of a propaganda effort, but a Facebook official said at the time that there was no evidence of the latter occurring.

Stamos said the company had reviewed "a range of activity" to discern what had happened in this instance, but he noted that the majority of ads purchased by these accounts didn't specifically refer to the United States election, or any of the presidential candidates. Instead, he explained, the ads mainly focused on controversial issues.

"The ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights," he said.</s>Trump Brings Ivanka on Stage in North Dakota: ‘She Actually Asked, Daddy Can I Go with You?’ — WATCH

Facebook told a congressional panel on Wednesday that it sold $100,000 in ads to a Russian company seeking to influence voters in the 2016 U.S. election.

Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian “troll farm” with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.

A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said. Most of the ads focused on pumping politically divisive issues such as gun rights and immigration fears, as well as gay rights and racial discrimination.

Facebook made the discovery as part of an internal investigation launched in the spring:

It found that 3,300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company.

Facebook teams then discovered 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages that it believes operated out of Russia, had links to the company and were involved in promoting the ads.</s>Facebook Inc said Wednesday it had found that an influence operation likely based in Russia spent US$100,000 on ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May.

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had found that an influence operation likely based in Russia spent US$100,000 on ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May.

Facebook, the dominant social media network, said that many of the ads promoted 470 "inauthentic" accounts and pages that it has now suspended. The ads spread polarizing views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights, instead of backing a particular political candidate, it said.

Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its chief security officer, Alex Stamos, and said that it was cooperating with federal inquiries into influence operations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The company said it found no link to any presidential campaign. Three-fourths of the ads were national in scope, and the rest did not appear to reflect targeting of political swing-states as voting neared.

Facebook did not print the names of any of the suspended pages, but some of them included such words as "refugee" and "patriot."

Even if no laws were violated, the pages ran afoul of Facebook requirements for authenticity, setting up the suspensions.

More than US$1 billion was spent on digital political ads during the 2016 presidential campaign, 10,000 times the amount identified by Facebook's security team.

But the findings buttress U.S. intelligence agency conclusions that Russia was actively involved in shaping the election.

Facebook previously published a white paper on influence operations, including what it said were fake "amplifier" accounts for propaganda, and said it was cracking down.

As recently as June, it told journalists that it had not found any evidence to date of Russian operatives buying election-related ads on its platform.

A Facebook employee said Wednesday that there were unspecified connections between the divisive ads and a well-known Russian "troll factory" in St. Petersburg that publishes comments on social media.

Beyond the issue ads, Facebook said it uncovered US$50,000 more in overtly political advertising that might have a link to Russia. Some of those ads were bought using the Russian language, even though they were displayed to users in English.</s>Facebook on Wednesday said an operation, likely based in Russia, spent $100,000 (around Rs 64 lakh) on advertisements promoting divisive messages during the 2016 United States Presidential elections on the social media platform. The company said 3,000 ads and 470 “inauthentic” accounts and pages spread polarising views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights from June 2015 to May 2017.

Another $50,000 (around Rs 32 lakh) was spent on 2,200 “potentially politically related” ads, likely by Russians, Facebook said. The findings buttress the US intelligence community’s conclusions in January that Russia was actively involved in shaping the election that led to President Donald Trump’s victory.

Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, and said it was cooperating with federal inquiries. The social media giant briefed members of the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees on Wednesday about the suspected Russian-linked advertising. The two committees are conducting investigations into alleged interference in the 2016 US election, including potential collusion between Trump’s election campaign and Moscow.

Facebook also gave its findings to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of investigating the alleged interference. Mueller’s office declined to comment.

Facebook said the 470 accounts associated with the ads ran afoul of the social network’s requirements for authenticity and have since been suspended.</s>Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that it has discovered it sold ads during the U.S. presidential election to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company's findings.

Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian "troll farm" with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.

A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said. Most of the ads focused on pumping politically divisive issues such as gun rights and immigration fears, as well as gay rights and racial discrimination.

The acknowledgment by Facebook comes as congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are probing Russian interference in the U.S. election, including allegations that the Kremlin may have coordinated with the Trump campaign.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in January that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election to help elect Trump, including by using paid social media trolls to spread fake news intended to influence public opinion.

Even though the ad spending from Russia is tiny relative to overall campaign costs, the report from Facebook that a Russian firm was able to target political messages is likely to fuel pointed questions from investigators about whether the Russians received guidance from people in the United States - a question some Democrats have been asking for months.

"I get the fact that the Russian intel services could figure out how to manipulate and use the bots. Whether they could know how to target states and levels of voters that the Democrats weren't even aware really raises some questions. I think that's a worthwhile area of inquiry," Sen. Mark Warner, Va., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a May airing of the podcast Pod Save America. "How did they know to go to that level of detail in those kinds of jurisdictions?"

An official familiar with Facebook's internal investigation said the company does not have the ability to determine whether the ads it sold represented any sort of coordination.

The acknowledgment by Facebook follows months of criticism that the social media company served as a platform for the spread of false information before the November election. In a statement posted days after the election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to explore the issue but said that 99 percent of information found on Facebook is authentic and only "a very small amount" is fake or hoaxes. In December, however, the company announced that it would begin flagging articles that had been deemed false or fake, with the assistance of fact-checking organizations.

Facebook discovered the Russian connection as part of an investigation that began this spring looking at purchasers of politically-motivated ads, according to people familiar with the inquiry. It found that 3,300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company.

Facebook teams then discovered 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages that it believes operated out of Russia, had links to the company and were involved in promoting the ads.

A Facebook official said "there is evidence that some of the accounts are linked to a troll farm in St. Petersburg, referred to as the Internet Research Agency, though we have no way to independently confirm." The official declined to release any of the ads it traced to Russian companies or entities.

"Our data policy and federal law limit our ability to share user data and content, so we won't be releasing any ads," the official said. The official added that the ads "were directed at people on Facebook who had expressed interest in subjects explored on those pages, such as LGBT community, black social issues, the Second Amendment, and immigration."

Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer, said in a statement that the company is committed to continuing to protect the integrity of its site and improve its ability to track fraudulent accounts. He said Facebook has shut down the accounts that remained active.

"We know we have to stay vigilant to keep ahead of people who try to misuse our platform," he said.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced technology improvements to detect fake accounts and more recently announced it would no longer allow Facebook pages to advertise if they have a pattern of sharing false news stories. Over the past few months, Stamos said, the company has also taken action to block fake accounts tied to election meddling in France and Germany.

The Internet Research Agency has received attention in the past for its activity.

In 2013, hackers released internal company documents showing it employed 600 people across Russia. Ex-employees who have gone public with their experiences at the company in Internet postings and in media interviews have said their work entailed creating fake Twitter and Facebook accounts and using them to circulate pro-Kremlin propaganda. They said Internet Research Agency employees, for instance, spread derogatory information about Putin critic Boris Nemtsov in the days after his 2015 murder.

In 2015, The New York Times Magazine reported that social media accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency had launched social media campaigns in the United States, including a sophisticated hoax that spread false news of a chemical leak in Louisiana in 2014, apparently to sow chaos and fear.

In its unclassified report in January, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that the Internet Research Agency's "likely financier" is a "close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence."

In May, Time Magazine reported that U.S. intelligence officials had discovered evidence that Russian agents had purchased ads on Facebook to target specific populations with propaganda. A Facebook spokesman told the magazine that the company had no evidence of such buys.

Under federal law and Federal Election Commission regulations, both foreign nationals and foreign governments are prohibited from making contributions or spending money to influence a federal, state or local election in the United States. The ban includes independent expenditures made in connection with an election.

Those banned from such spending include foreign citizens, foreign governments, foreign political parties, foreign corporations, foreign associations and foreign partnerships, according to the FEC. (Permanent residents who hold green cards, however, are not considered foreign nationals.) Violators face civil penalties, as well as criminal prosecution if they are found to have knowingly broken the law.

Andrew Roth and Alice Crites contributed to this report.</s>SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had found that an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on thousands of US ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-yearperiod through May.Facebook said 3,000 ads and 470 “inauthentic” accounts and pages spread polarising views on topics, including immigration, race and gay rights. Another $50,000 was spent on 2,200 “potentially politically related” ads, likely by Russians, Facebook said.US election law bars foreign nationals and foreign entities from spending money to expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate. Non-US citizens may generally advertise on issues.Other ads, such as those that mention a candidate but do not call for the candidate’s election or defeat, fall into what lawyers have called a legal gray area.Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its chief security officer, Alex Stamos, and said that it was cooperating with federal inquiries into inf luence operations during the 2016 US presidential election.Facebook briefed members of both the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees on Wednesday about the suspected Russia advertising, according to a congressional source familiar with the matter. Both committees are conducting probes into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, including potential collusion between the campaign of President Donald Trump and Moscow.</s>Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian "troll farm" with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.

A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said, though they declined to say which candidate the ads favored.

Most of the ads, according to a blog post published late Wednesday by Facebook's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, "appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum - touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights."

The acknowledgment by Facebook comes as congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are probing Russian interference in the U.S. election, including allegations that the Kremlin may have coordinated with the Trump campaign.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in January that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election to help elect Trump, including by using paid social media trolls to spread fake news intended to influence public opinion.

Even though the ad spending from Russia is tiny relative to overall campaign costs, the report from Facebook that a Russian firm was able to target political messages is likely to fuel pointed questions from investigators about whether the Russians received guidance from people in the United States - a question some Democrats have been asking for months.

Facebook reported in its blog post Wednesday that about one-quarter of the ads in question were "geographically targeted," though company officials declined to provide specifics about what areas or demographic groups were the recipients. Of those targeted ads, the company said, more ran in 2015 than 2016.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that the disclosure by Facebook confirmed one of the ways Russia sought to interfere in U.S. politics and serves as a "profound warning to us and others about future elections."

"This is a very significant set of data points produced by Facebook," Schiff said, adding: "Left unanswered in what we received from Facebook - because it is beyond the scope of what they are able to determine - is whether there was any coordination between these social media trolls and the campaign. We have to get to the bottom of that . . . "

The House panel, whose staff investigators heard briefly from Facebook representatives behind closed doors Wednesday, will follow up with Facebook and other social media companies and platforms to see "to what degree they are able to confirm similar metrics," Sciff said.

An official familiar with Facebook's internal investigation said the company does not have the ability to determine whether the ads it sold represented any sort of coordination.

The acknowledgment by Facebook follows months of criticism that the social media company served as a platform for the spread of false information before the November election. In a statement posted days after the election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to explore the issue but said that 99 percent of information found on Facebook is authentic and only "a very small amount" is fake or hoaxes. In December, however, the company announced that it would begin flagging articles that had been deemed false or fake, with the assistance of fact-checking organizations.

Facebook discovered the Russian connection as part of an investigation that began this spring looking at purchasers of politically-motivated ads, according to people familiar with the inquiry. It found that 3,300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company.

Facebook teams then discovered 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages that it believes operated out of Russia, had links to the company and were involved in promoting the ads.

A Facebook official said "there is evidence that some of the accounts are linked to a troll farm in St. Petersburg, referred to as the Internet Research Agency, though we have no way to independently confirm." The official declined to release any of the ads it traced to Russian companies or entities.

"Our data policy and federal law limit our ability to share user data and content, so we won't be releasing any ads," the official said. The official added that the ads "were directed at people on Facebook who had expressed interest in subjects explored on those pages, such as LGBT community, black social issues, the Second Amendment, and immigration."

Clint Watts, a former FBI agent who has studied Russian online influence campaigns, said Wednesday that Facebook's report served as "validation" for findings by him and his researchers, who he said had spotted what they believed to be Russians posing as Americans to press political messages on Facebook as early as 2015.

He said his analysis showed that Facebook ads in 2015 were largely concerned with divisive social messages and were used to identify other Facebook users most susceptible to messaging. Those users were then targeted with election-oriented ads in 2016, he said.

"We had these suspicions, but we could never see who was purchasing the accounts," said Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. "Facebook's being brave. They probably could have buried this, and they did the right thing by coming forward."

Stamos, the Facebook security chief, said the company is committed to continuing to protect the integrity of its site and improve its ability to track fraudulent accounts. He said Facebook has shut down the accounts that remained active.

"We know we have to stay vigilant to keep ahead of people who try to misuse our platform," he said.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced technology improvements to detect fake accounts and more recently announced it would no longer allow Facebook pages to advertise if they have a pattern of sharing false news stories. Over the past few months, Stamos said, the company has also taken action to block fake accounts tied to election meddling in France and Germany.

The Internet Research Agency has received attention in the past for its activity.

In 2013, hackers released internal company documents showing it employed 600 people across Russia. Ex-employees who have gone public with their experiences at the company in Internet postings and in media interviews have said their work entailed creating fake Twitter and Facebook accounts and using them to circulate pro-Kremlin propaganda. They said Internet Research Agency employees, for instance, spread derogatory information about Putin critic Boris Nemtsov in the days after his 2015 murder.

In 2015, the New York Times Magazine reported that social media accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency had launched social media campaigns in the United States, including a sophisticated hoax that spread false news of a chemical leak in Louisiana in 2014, apparently to sow chaos and fear.

In its unclassified report in January, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that the Internet Research Agency's "likely financier" is a "close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence."

In May, Time Magazine reported that U.S. intelligence officials had discovered evidence that Russian agents had purchased ads on Facebook to target specific populations with propaganda. A Facebook spokesman told the magazine that the company had no evidence of such buys.

Under federal law and Federal Election Commission regulations, both foreign nationals and foreign governments are prohibited from making contributions or spending money to influence a federal, state or local election in the United States. The ban includes independent expenditures made in connection with an election.

Those banned from such spending include foreign citizens, foreign governments, foreign political parties, foreign corporations, foreign associations and foreign partnerships, according to the FEC. (Permanent residents who hold green cards, however, are not considered foreign nationals.) Violators face civil penalties, as well as criminal prosecution, if they are found to have knowingly broken the law.</s>WASHINGTON. D.C. — has discovered that it sold about $100,000 in political ads to Russian-linked sources over the past two years, and has shared that information with authorities investigating Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election.

The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday that Facebook had informed congressional investigators that the ad sales were linked to a Russian “troll” farm known for spreading propaganda. The entity was called the Internet Research Agency.

Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer, wrote in a blog post that “in reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia.”

He said that a majority of the ads did not specify any candidate, but “the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.”

“One question that has emerged is whether there’s a connection between the Russian efforts and ads purchased on Facebook,” he wrote. “These are serious claims and we’ve been reviewing a range of activity on our platform to help understand what happened.”

He outlined a series of steps the company has been taking to detect fake accounts and to detect inauthentic pages. That includes “reducing stories from sources that consistently post clickbait headlines that withhold and exaggerate information.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees are examining Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election, and whether any Trump campaign officials coordinated with Russian sources.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to address the spread of so-called “fake news” on the platform during the election. In a May white paper, the company outlined steps that they’re taking to try to limit the promotion of such false information.

Facebook’s revelation could also trigger calls for greater public disclosure of the sources of political spending. Broadcasters are required to disclose records of their political ad sales.</s>Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had found that an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on thousands of US ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May. Facebook, the dominant social media network, said 3,000 ads and 470 “inauthentic” accounts and pages spread polarizing views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights.

Another $50,000 was spent on 2,200 “potentially politically related” ads, likely by Russians, Facebook said.

 US election law bars foreign nationals and foreign entities from spending money to expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate. Non-US citizens may generally advertise on issues. Other ads, such as those that mention a candidate but do not call for the candidate’s election or defeat, fall into what lawyers have called a legal gray area.

Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its chief security officer, Alex Stamos, and said that it was cooperating with federal inquiries into influence operations during the 2016 US presidential election. http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/09/information-operations-update/

Facebook briefed members of both the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees on Wednesday about the suspected Russia advertising, according to a congressional source familiar with the matter. Both committees are conducting probes into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, including potential collusion between the campaign of President Donald Trump and Moscow.

Facebook also gave its findings to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of investigating alleged Russian interference in last year’s presidential election, a source familiar with the matter said. The company produced copies of advertisements as well as data about the buyers, the source said.

 Mueller’s office declined to comment.

Facebook said it found no link between the Russian-purchased advertising and any specific presidential campaign. The ads were mostly national in their focus and did not appear to reflect targeting of political swing-states, the company said. Even if no laws were violated, Facebook said the 470 accounts and pages associated with the ads ran afoul of the social network’s requirements for authenticity and have since been suspended.

Facebook did not print the names of any of the suspended pages, but some of them included such words as “refugee” and “patriot.” More than $1 billion was spent on political ads during the 2016 presidential campaign, thousands of times more than the presumed Russian spending identified by Facebook’s security team.

But the findings buttress US intelligence agency conclusions that Russia was actively involved in shaping the election. Facebook previously published a white paper on influence operations, including what it said were fake “amplifier” accounts for propaganda, and said it was cracking down.

As recently as June, Facebook told journalists that it had not found any evidence of Russian operatives buying election-related ads on its platform.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called the Facebook report “deeply disturbing and yet fully consistent with the unclassified assessment of the intelligence community.”

“We are keenly interested in Russia’s use of social media platforms, both the use of bots and trolls to spread disinformation and propaganda, including through the use of paid online advertising,” he said in a statement. A Facebook employee said Wednesday that there were unspecified connections between the divisive issue ads and a well-known Russian “troll factory” in St. Petersburg that publishes comments on social media.

Ellen Weintraub, a member of the US Federal Election Commission, said US voters deserve to know where the ads are coming from and that the money behind them is legal. “It is unlawful for foreign nationals to be spending money in connection with any federal, state or local election, directly or indirectly,” Weintraub said in a phone interview.

She declined to comment on the Facebook ads, saying she could not discuss subjects that could come before the agency. Facebook declined to release the ads themselves, prompting a sharp rebuke on Twitter from Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of First Look Media, a producer of feature and documentary films, television and podcasts.

“Facebook keeps the targeted political ads it publishes secret, emboldening criminals,” wrote Omidyar, the eBay founder who also provided funding to launch media organization The Intercept. “I don’t see how that can possibly be legal.”

Facebook’s disclosure may be the first time a private entity has pointed to receiving Russian money related to US elections, said Brendan Fischer, a program director at the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington nonprofit that advocates for more transparency. “Whoever may have provided assistance to Russia in buying these Facebook ads is very likely in violation of the law,” he said, adding that Facebook has a legal duty to act if it is aware of similar activity in the future.

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Facebook tells congressional investigators an operation, traced to a Russian company seeking to target voters, spent $100,000 on thousands of U.S. ads promoting divisive social and political messages during the 2016 U.S. election.