Microsoft investigates Russian bought ads

Microsoft is investigating whether Russian operatives bought US election ads on products and platforms such as its Bing search engine.

Microsoft is looking into whether Russians bought US election ads on its Bing search engine or on other Microsoft-owned products and platforms, after rival Google said it had discovered such ads on its products.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said in a statement in response to questions from Reuters that the company did not yet have any other information to share.

Google says Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads on YouTube, Gmail, Google search and other products, The Washington Post reports.

The ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-affiliated entity that bought ads on Facebook, which may indicate a broader Russian online disinformation effort, the paper reported on Monday.

Google runs the world's largest online advertising business and YouTube is the world's largest online video site.

Both Twitter and Facebook have said that Russia bought ads and had accounts on their platforms.


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Source: AAP



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