U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday blasted claims by Facebook that it had published thousands of advertisements originating from Russia, from groups seeking to influence 2016 election, even as the Kremlin denied any involvement.
“The Russia hoax continues, now it’s ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest media coverage in favour of Crooked Hillary?’’
Trump wrote on Twitter, a day after the popular social network said it would provide the U.S. Congress with details about political ads sponsored by Russians as part of the investigation into Russian influence in the U.S. presidential election.
The Kremlin denied being involved in Facebook advertisements that have been aimed at influencing U.S. politics and said it does not know, who placed the ads.
“We have never engaged in this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.
“The Russian side has never been involved in this,” he said.
Earlier this month, Facebook said it sold some 100,000 dollars in political ads purchased out of Russia that were aimed at influencing U.S. politics.
Some 3,000 ads sold between June 2015 and May 2017 were tied to inauthentic accounts and pages that violated the site’s policies and “were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia,” Facebook’s Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos, said in a statement.
Separate probes by the U.S. Congress and an independent counsel into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election are continuing and include questions about potential collusion between members of Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.