Google Has 'Seen No Evidence' of Russian Ad Campaign During US Vote

Google said it has seen no evidence that its advertising platforms were used for any Russian propaganda campaign.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Google saw no evidence that its advertising platforms were used for any Russian propaganda campaign aimed at swaying the outcome of the US presidential election, the US tech giant said in a statement.

"We’re always monitoring for abuse or violations of our policies, and we’ve seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms," Google's statement said on Thursday, as reported by Bloomberg News.

On Wednesday, the social media website Facebook said in a statement that it discovered that it sold political advertisements during the 2016 election to a Russian company targeting American voters with political ads.

In reviewing the advertisements’ buys, Facebook found around $100,000 in advertisement spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 advertisements — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and pages in violation of its policies, the statement said.

A thorough analysis suggests the accounts and pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia, the statement added.

US congressional investigators are probing allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, an accusation that Moscow has repeatedly denied.