US President Donald Trump has accused the media of bias over a continuing “Russia hoax.” The statement comes on the heels of a Facebook investigation into alleged Russia-linked ads on the social network during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“The Russia hoax continues, now it's ads on Facebook,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?”
The Russia hoax continues, now it's ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2017
On Thursday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company will release to US Congress the activity it uncovered concerning “fake accounts linked to Russia running ads” during the US 2016 presidential campaign.
Earlier in September, Facebook said it had discovered some 3,000 ads purchased between June 2015 and May 2017, connected to 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,” Facebook said in a statement.
In the same statement, the company admitted that the “vast majority of ads run by these accounts” had nothing to do with the election, voting, or a particular candidate.
Russia has denied the allegations and says it is not involved in political advertisements on Facebook.
“We don't know who placed the advertisements on Facebook or how, and have never done it. The Russian side has never been part of it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday.
