Russian Trolls Spent 1. Facebook Ads Around the Election. Facebook announced today that it sold 1. Russian accounts between June 2. May 2. 01. 7, a period spanning the 2. The ads often mentioned particular political issues, like LGBT rights or gun control, but rarely mentioned a specific political candidate or the US presidential election. One question that has emerged is whether theres a connection between the Russian efforts and ads purchased on Facebook, Alex Stamos, the companys chief security officer, said in a statement. These are serious claims and weve been reviewing a range of activity on our platform to help understand what happened. Facebook says the ad buys came from 4. Russia. The social network shut down the accounts and pages that remained active for violating its policies. Since the election, Facebook has been reviewing its role in spreading disinformation. In April, it published a comprehensive review of coordinated disinformation campaigns on its platform, noting that such campaigns often focused on spreading confusing or promoting specific causes. Facebook doesnt say why it reviewed ad purchases in particular, but it sounds like the review may have stemmed from its broader investigation into disinformation campaigns. Representatives from the company explained the findings to congressional investigators today and noted that the accounts associated with the ad buys could be traced to a Russian troll farm, The Washington Post reported. Watch Boys In Brown Online Mic. Only a quarter of the ads were targeted geographically, and most of those ads ran in 2. Facebook said. The ads focused on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum and used techniques Facebook previously identified as those used by disinformation campaigns, Stamos said. Facebook conducted a broad review of ads on its platform, looking for ad buys that might have even a loose connection to Russia. This was a broad search, including, for instance, ads bought from accounts with US IP addresses but with the language set to Russian even though they didnt necessarily violate any policy or law, Stamos said. This broader review uncovered 5. Gizmodo contacted Facebook for more information about the ad buys and will update if we hear back. Watch The Devil`S Double Online Facebook' title='Watch The Devil`S Double Online Facebook' />Lifehacker. Nick Douglas. Staff Writer, Lifehacker Nick has been writing online for 1. Urlesque, Gawker, the Daily Dot, and Slacktory. He lives in Park Slope with his wife and their books. Watch Spellbound Online Full Movie here. Watch the latest Featured Videos on CBSNews. View more videos on CBS News, featuring the latest indepth coverage from our news team. IMDb went to New York Comic Con 2017 to learn crucial tidbits about Marvels anticipated new series, Runaways. Watch to find out what we discovered. Watch Three Steps Over Heaven Online Freeform more.