Reports: Google Has Found Russian-Bought Ads On Its Ad Network, YouTube

FILE - This Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013 file photo shows Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google's latest "moonshot" project, announced Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, involves detecting cancer by swallowing a pill... FILE - This Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013 file photo shows Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google's latest "moonshot" project, announced Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, involves detecting cancer by swallowing a pill. The pill is packed with tiny magnetic particles, which can travel through a patient's bloodstream, search for malignant cells and report their findings to a sensor device that you wear. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) MORE LESS
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Google has discovered that Russian operatives spent “tens of thousands of dollars” on advertising associated with its products and services, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with Google’s internal investigation, that the operatives who bought the ads “aimed to spread disinformation across Google’s many products, which include YouTube, as well as advertising associated with Google search, Gmail, and the company’s DoubleClick ad network.”

Those sources told the Washington Post that the ads Google is looking at “cost less than $100,000” and that the company is still working to distinguish whether all of the ads were bought by operatives or if some came from legitimate accounts.

According to the report, the ads purchased on Google appear to be from a different source than the 3,000 ads purchased on Facebook by a Kremlin-linked “troll farm.”

The company discovered the ads by downloading historical data from Twitter, according to the Washington Post, and using it “to link Russian Twitter accounts to other accounts that had used Google’s services to buy ads.”

Google told the Washington Post in September that it had “seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms.”

The company declined to comment to the Washington Post in October. In a statement to CNN, however, Google spokesperson Andrea Faville said the company is “taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems” and will “provide assistance to ongoing inquiries.”

Read the full report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. Indeed boys and girls, moms and dads,
    This is the real “Red Scare”
    Coupled with what that guy said on 60 minutes last night about Facebook
    Ya we’re fucked

  2. Avatar for ghost ghost says:

    So when is Congress going to do something about this interference? Do they really care more about protecting Trump and themselves than about protecting our democratic processes?

    Oh wait…

  3. Mueller — hello! Wake up! Indict!

  4. Google has discovered that Russian operatives spent “tens of thousands of dollars” on advertising associated with its products and services, the Washington Post reported on Sunday [October 8].

    … Google’s internal investigation [showed] that the operatives who bought the ads “aimed to spread disinformation across Google’s many products, which include YouTube, as well as advertising associated with Google search, Gmail, and the company’s DoubleClick ad network.”

    Google told the Washington Post in September that it had “seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms.”

    I’m no tech guru, but it seems as though when you actually look for evidence of planting fake ads and fake news stories, it’s not that hard to find. That should lead to ideas of what to do in the future.

  5. Avatar for cd cd says:

    use these recurring instances of russian money being spent on US political advertising to encourage public funding of elections, this goes way beyond citizen’s united, or force ALL advertising funding sources to be explicitly detailed on the advertisement or some such rot

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