WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Google has discovered Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads on its YouTube, Gmail and Google Search products in an effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a person briefed on the company’s probe told Reuters on Monday.

The ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-affiliated entity that bought ads on FacebookInc <FB.O>, but may indicate a broader Russian online disinformation effort, according to the source, who was not authorized to discuss details of the confidential investigation by Alphabet Inc’s <GOOGL.O> Google.

Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> said separately on Monday that it was looking at whether Russians bought U.S. election ads on its Bing search engine or other Microsoft-owned products and platforms. A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment further.

The revelation about Google is likely to fuel further scrutiny of the role that Silicon Valley technology giants may have unwittingly played during last year’s election. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow’s goal was to help elect Donald Trump.

Google has uncovered less than $100,000 in ad spending potentially linked to Russian actors, the source said.

Both Twitter Inc <TWTR.N> and Facebook recently detected and disclosed that suspected Russian operatives, working for a content farm known as the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, Russia, used their platforms to purchase ads and post content that was politically divisive in a bid to influence Americans before and after the November 2016 presidential election.

The Internet Research Agency employ hundreds of so-called “trolls” who post pro-Kremlin content, much of it fake or discredited, under the guise of phony social media accounts that posed as American or European residents, according to lawmakers and researchers.

Facebook announced last month it had unearthed $100,000 in spending by the Internet Research Agency and, under pressure from lawmakers, has pledged to be more transparent about how its ads are purchased and targeted.

Google’s review had been more robust than ones undertaken so far by Facebook or Twitter, the source said.

Russia’s ad purchases on Google were first reported by the Washington Post.

Google did not deny the story, and in a statement pointed to its existing ad policies that limit political ad targeting and prohibit targeting based on race or religion.

“We are taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems, working with researchers and other companies, and will provide assistance to ongoing inquiries,” a Google spokeswoman said on Monday.

‘DESTROY OUR DEMOCRACY’

Google, which runs the world’s largest online advertising business, had largely evaded public or congressional scrutiny until now. On Sunday, the Daily Beast news website reported that the Kremlin recruited at least two black video bloggers to post clips on YouTube during the campaign. They posed as Black Lives Matter sympathizers who were sharply critical of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Though the videos were only viewed hundreds of times, they demonstrated for the first time that Russia allegedly deployed real people, not just fake online accounts or bots, to further spread propaganda.

Congressional committees have launched multiple investigations into Russian interference, but concern about Silicon Valley’s role has surged over the past month against the backdrop of a cascade of revelations about how Russia appears to have leveraged their platforms to spread propaganda.

A study published on Monday by researchers with the Oxford Internet Institute, which is affiliated with the British university, found that current U.S. military personnel and veterans were targeted by disinformation campaigns on Twitter and Facebook over the past year by a nexus of pro-Kremlin, Russian-oriented sites, along with conspiracy theorists and European right-wing ideologues.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have said Russia intended to sow discord in the United States, spread propaganda and sway the election. Some Democrats plan to introduce legislation to require internet companies to disclose more information about political ad purchases on their platforms.

“If Vladimir Putin is using Facebook or Google or Twitter to, in effect, destroy our democracy, the American people should know about it,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said Monday on MSNBC.

Google officials have been invited to testify publicly about Russian attempts to use their platforms to influence the election before both the House and Senate intelligence committees on Nov. 1 alongside Facebook and Twitter. While Facebook and Twitter have confirmed plans to attend, Google has not.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Additional reporting by Makini Brice in Washington, Eric Auchard in Frankfurt and David Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Shumaker)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Twitter Inc on Thursday banned advertisements from accounts owned by Russian media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, citing allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that the outlets tried to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election.

Election-meddling is “not something we want on Twitter,” the San Francisco-based social network said in an unsigned statement.

“We did not come to this decision lightly, and are taking this step now as part of our ongoing commitment to help protect the integrity of the user experience on Twitter,” the company said.

In addition to Twitter, Facebook Inc and Alphabet’s Google have recently detected that suspected Russian operatives used their platforms last year to purchase ads and post content that was politically divisive.

RT said in a statement on its website that it has never been involved in any illegal activity online and “never pursued an agenda of influencing the U.S. election through any platforms, including Twitter.”

A representative for Sputnik was not immediately available for comment.

Twitter said last month it had suspended about 200 Russian-linked accounts as it investigates propaganda efforts related to last year’s U.S. presidential race.

(Reporting by David Ingram in San Francisco, Angela Moon in New York and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Susan Thomas)

Throughout the Twitter verse, in Santa Monica, and all across the nation people were shocked on March 4^th when President Donald Trump posted that he had just found out something terrible.

Donald J. Trump on X (formerly Twitter): “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism! / X”

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

Constant controversy and recent wiretapping scandals coming from our nations capital (about the C.I.A. allegedly hacking information, and possibly the president wiretapping) is shaking our country and those in small and big towns alike.  Claims, such as these, tend to breed a larger mistrust in our government.  Even though the allegations are unsubstantiated, they have the ability to put major question marks around Obama, Donald Trump and Washington D.C. as a whole.

People have been buzzing about both Obama possibly misusing power and Trump making allegations before proof was readily available.  It was after posting these shocking tweets that Trump called for an investigation to find out the truth behind these wiretapping allegations.

Despite Obama’s spokesman, Kevin Lewis, saying these claims were false, the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee were not so sure.  They requested the Justice Department provide proper evidence relating to these claims for a hearing that is set to take place on March 20^th.

A department spokeswoman for the DOJ, however, has said that more time is necessary “to review the request in compliance with the governing legal authorities and to determine what if any responsive documents may exist,” according to Reuters.

Thus far, no strong evidence supporting Trump’s claims has been revealed to the public, and on Monday when asked about the wiretapping, Trump declined to comment.

Since the Tweets, a myriad of responses and different stories have been floating around, from civilians and officials alike.  Citizens have flocked to social media waging Twitter wars, questioning the government, and arguing about the truth or fiction behind Trumps Tweets.

Officials also have been occupied with dissecting the meaning behind Trump’s allegations, and have hinted that Trump didn’t necessarily mean wiretapping in the literal sense, but rather a broader sense of the word. Hinting that perhaps he was referring to election surveillance as a whole, not specifically Trump Tower, and even suggesting that he was referring to the Obama administration as a whole, not Obama specifically.

Furthermore,  in a press conference, the White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, discussed “wiretapping” by using air quotes, and defined it as something “that…that spans a whole host of surveillance type of options,” broadening the scope of the allegations and broadening the definition of wiretapping itself.

However, with the March 20^th hearing date approaching next week and no evidence being turned over thus far, the House of Intelligence Committee may resort to more drastic measures. “If the committee does not receive a response by then, the committee will ask for this information during the March 20 hearing and may resort to a compulsory process if our questions continue to go unanswered,” a spokesman said according to Reuters.

With social media, government officials, and citizens still ablaze with concern, there is no telling if March 20^th will truly bring any answers or rather just cause more tension.

Some content courtesy of Reuters.