Russians have been sneaking divisive messages onto Facebook

Facebook's Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos revealed in a post Wednesday that thousands of politically divisive ads on the social network were purchased from Russian "bot" accounts.

The ads, totaling approximately 3,000, were purchased between June 2015 and May 2017. Some were geographically targeted, and the topics focused on some of the more inflammatory issues in the nation, such as LGBT rights, race, immigration, and the 2nd Amendment.

This all goes back to claims that Russia used Facebook as a means of interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook addressed some of these issues in an April paper.

While none of the ads specifically mentioned the election or a particular candidate, Stamos conceded that they appear to have been part of a coordinated effort to stir up political angst and increase partisan divides in the U.S.

"The ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum," Stamos wrote.

Stamos said these findings have been shared with U.S. authorities, violating accounts have been deleted, and Facebook is working on ways to prevent similar abuses in the future, such as taking measures to limit spam and blocking pages that repeatedly share false stories from advertising on Facebook.

"We know we have to stay vigilant to keep ahead of people who try to misuse our platform," Stamos wrote. "We believe in protecting the integrity of civil discourse, and require advertisers on our platform to follow both our policies and all applicable laws."

Huge tech platforms like Facebook and Google increasingly control the flow and dissemination of news and information around the world, and revelations like this give cause for more skepticism about the source and quality of news on social media.

Facebook has been struggling to control fake news and advertising over the past few years, and has also received scrutiny for advertising audience numbers that seem to conflict with U.S. Census Bureau data.

You may also remember back in May 2016 when former Facebook employees admitted to suppressing news stories of interest to conservative audiences by preventing them from appearing in the "highly influential" section of the website, even if they were actually trending stories.

Although Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied any political aspirations, speculation has circulated for months that the billionaire is preparing for a 2020 presidential run. Fueling that speculation is the year-long "listening tour" Zuckerberg is currently on.

Zuckerberg has been traveling across the country, intending to visit all 50 states, in order to meet with state and local leaders as well as constituents. He hasn't publicly established a political platform, although he has spoken in favor of universal basic income.

If he did decide to run for president, the level of control his company has over information nationwide would become an even more important and contentious issue, especially with several examples of that information being compromised.