Ripped Bernie, Jesus Arm-Wrestling With Satan And Other Russian Social Media Ads

A picture portrays Jesus and the Devil arm-wrestling. "Satan: If I Win Clinton Wins! Jesus: Not If I Can Help It!" the caption says. A doodle depicts colour-in Bernie Sanders in muscle pose, standing in front of rainbowy White House. A photo shows three barefoot women wearing light-blue burqas with captions that say: "Like And Share If You Want Burqa Banned in America" and "Stop The Invaders". 

No, these aren't random memes found on 9gag or Reddit. These are examples of social media ads purchased by Russia-linked actors around the 2016 U.S. presidential election that were released yesterday by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee during a hearing with Facebook, Google and Twitter on Capitol Hill.

Coming from various accounts with names like Army of Jesus and LGBT United, the ads cover different social issues, such as immigration, police abuse, religion, secession movements and racial injustice. Aimed at both Republicans and Democrats, they targeted users based on their social media data, such as location, political party or interests. It doesn't take an intelligence committee to recognise that the aim was to polarise the American population and cause discord around divisive issues.

The New York Times presents you with a pick of ads, a good-enough sample if you want to quickly wrap your head around the issue. However, if you want to dive into a more detailed overview, go for Politico's article in which the ads are presented alongside information on when they ran, who they targeted, how many people they reached, and how much they cost. Don't be surprised if you recognise some of them. 126 million people are said to have been exposed to Russia-linked content through Facebook alone. Maybe you were one of them...