Google has found evidence of the Russian Federation’s involvement in the use of company platforms to interfere in the US election

Google first revealed evidence of Russia's involvement in the use of company platforms in order to intervene in the 2016 presidential election in the United States. Several people familiar with the results of the investigation of the corporation told about this the newspaper The Washington Post .

The company found that Russian agents spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertising for the spread of disinformation on the many Google platforms, including YouTube, the Google Search search engine, the Gmail email service and the DoubleClick advertising network. The sources of the publication reported this on conditions of anonymity, since the issue was not discussed publicly.

At the same time, Google suggests that advertising was not located the Putin cook factory Evgeny Prigozhin, which, as the media previously reported , purchased advertising on Facebook in an attempt to influence American politics. Thus, the problem of Russia's intervention can have a much larger scale, the newspaper notes.

- The odious "trolley farm" associated with the Kremlin, and the Russians trying to close it

Familiar investigations, sources said that the company is studying a set of advertisements worth less than 100 thousand dollars. According to the interlocutors of the publication, the company still finds out whether all the advertisement was located "trolls" or part of the real Russian accounts.

According to sources, Google discovered the Russian presence on his platforms, pumping data from another technological company - Twitter. By loading these data, Google was able to connect Russian Twitter accounts with other accounts that used Google platforms to buy advertising. This was done without explicit cooperation with Twitter, sources noted.

According to them, the Google investigation is at an early stage. The number of advertisements and clicks on them has not yet been determined. The corporation continues to study its own records and shares data with Facebook. With Twitter, the company does not cooperate as part of the investigation.

Google refused to give a comment on the publication of WP.

Earlier, Google denied the problem of Russian interference on his platforms. Last month, the spokesman for Andaa Faville told WP that Google "always monitors the abuse or violations of our policy and we did not see evidence that this type of advertising campaign was launched on our platforms."

Nevertheless, Google began the investigation of this issue, since the US Congress demanded that technological companies find out how Russian agents used social networks, online advertising and other digital tools to influence the 2016 presidential election and sow discord in American society.

The Facebook and Twitter leaders will testify to the participants in the investigation of the congress on the alleged intervention of the Russian Federation in the 2016 elections. Google did not report whether the company will accept a similar invitation. Representatives of all three companies were invited to open hearings to Congress.

In early September, Facebook said that the accounts associated with Russia for two years bought political advertising, including before the US presidential election in November 2016. About 100 thousand dollars were spent on this.

After almost a month, Facebook specified that the advertisements attributed to Russia with messages designed to cause disagreements in American society saw 10 million people in the United States. The American media associated the order for advertising with the work of the "troll factory", which is overseeated by the St. Petersburg businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, better known as Putin's personal cook.