4:00 PM 11/2/2017 – Paul Manafort is a victim of bad passwords… Who could think…

An ad from a Russia-linked account on Facebook run during the 2016 presidential election.US House Intelligence Committee

Congress released some of the Facebook ads linked to Russian operatives in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, and they reveal a concerted effort to divide the US and vilify Hillary Clinton.

The ads targeted different cross-sections of the US population and often citizens at opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, released the trove on Wednesday before a hearing with Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

“Whether the Russians and Trump coordinated these efforts, we do not yet know, but it is true that the Russians mounted what could be described as an independent expenditure campaign on Trump’s behalf,” Schiff said.

“The Russians did so by weaving together fake accounts, pages, and communities to push politicized content and videos, and to mobilize real Americans to sign online petitions and join rallies and protests,” Schiff said.

Some of the ads portrayed Clinton as an ally of Satan, promoted a US burqa ban, and hailed Trump as the “one and only who can defend the police from terrorists.”

Take a look at the divisive ads below.

A suggestion to like the “Woke Blacks” Facebook page was shown to people interested in “African-American culture” and the civil rights movement.

It was seen more than 750,000 times, the Wall Street Journal reported.

This post, centered on Sanders’ criticism of the Clinton Foundation, was targeted at people who liked the “Bernie Sanders” Facebook page.

“The Clinton Foundation is nothing more than an ‘organized crime’ at it’s [sic] finest, in which we are investing our taxpayers’ money,” the rest of the ad went.

“So why are so many people going to vote for her? That’s a secret for me. What’s your opinion on that point?”