Here Are Some of the Social Media Posts That Russia Used to Meddle in the 2016 Election

They’re aimed at everything from Black Lives Matter to Sharia law.

Nov 01, 20176:14 PM

Vice President and General Counsel for Facebook Colin Stretch.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released a trove of screenshots showing Russian-linked ads, events, memes, pages, and petitions that had been disseminated across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The content appears aimed at further inflaming recent debates in America. Some targeted issues like immigration that came up repeatedly during the campaign. Others focused on Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The release came as officials from Facebook, Twitter, and Google testified before Congress about Russia-linked actors using their platforms to attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Some posts received hundreds of thousands of impressions and tens of thousands of shares, according to the metadata also released Wednesday.

Below is a sampling of the screenshots released.

One appears to be marketing a LGBT-themed Bernie Sanders coloring book. The illustrator was apparently unaware, and offended, that Russian agents created an ad for her book:

This post references a persistent rumor concerning Bill Clinton’s alleged love child:

Russian agents reportedly funded or advertised at least 60 events on social media:

The text in this meme references a controversial quote from Clinton’s Benghazi testimony:

This petition taps into a dynasty narrative that took hold early in the 2016 primaries:

The fake “Blacktivist” account was directed at people in Baltimore in honor of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody in 2015. Some in the community theorized the account was controlled by an undercover cop:

The “Do Not Shoot Us” campaign was also used to manipulate users on Pokémon Go:

The “Heart of Texas” group reportedly contacted an actual Texas secessionist movement to try to convince its members to attend anti-Clinton rallies:

During the hearing, Sen. Mark Warner claimed that the “Army of Jesus” page would initially send followers Bible quotes. Then it started sending political posts: