Democrats from the House Intelligence Committee released a total of 3,519 Facebook ads on Thursday that were run from 2015 to 2017 by the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency.

All the ads are available to the public as a download. They cover a wide range of opinions, from pro- and anti-Donald Trump, and for the most part seemed to be aimed at fomenting division among Americans on topics such as gun control, gay rights, immigration and the treatment of African-Americans.

Looking through the ads, you might find a quote from French philosopher Michael Foucault on the “LGBT-United” page, or lines from 2Pac on the “Black Matters” page. It seems Black Matters was a prolific poster, but then you can find anti-Muslim sentiment spread on the IRA page “Hearts of Texas.”

The purpose, it seems, was always to create a sense of discord, rather than get behind one particular side of a debate. For that reason the Russian effort has been called a campaign of mass trolling.

I’ve looked through many of them and it’s clear that Russia was aiming to exploit the fault lines in American society — gun control, race relations, immigration — and get people angry on both sides. Paying to promote rallies both pro- and anti-Trump https://t.co/bXghLcXGob

— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) May 10, 2018

“Russia sought to weaponize social media to drive a wedge between Americans, and in an attempt to sway the 2016 election,” tweeted California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee. “They created fake accounts, pages and communities to push divisive online content and videos, and to mobilize real Americans.”

The issue now is trying to assess what kind of impact these ads might have had on the public and also ensuring something like this doesn’t happen again. With the release of the ads, the public can see exactly how many impressions and clicks each ad had, but it can’t be ascertained how many people may have been moved to attend a rally after a post urged them to do so.

“This will never be a solved problem because we’re up against determined, creative and well-funded adversaries,” Facebook said in a post Thursday. “But we are making steady progress.”

Facebook listed various ways it was dealing with the problem, from more ad transparency, verification and using improved technology to spot fake accounts. The company said it will now be extra-vigilant on the runup to elections in countries all around the world.

Image: Audrey via Flickr