Twitter reveals Russia-backed ads ahead of US election

WASHINGTON: Twitter on Thursday revealed that nearly 2,000 ads were placed on the messaging service in 2016 by a Russian media group suspected of trying to interfere with the US presidential election. 

A Twitter statement said the social media company shared data with congressional investigators about ads from RT, a television group with links to the Moscow government. 

Twitter said RT spent $274,000 in 2016 on Twitter ads that may have been used to try to inf .. 

Twitter said it examined efforts by foreign agents to interfere with the election after Facebook indicated it found 450 accounts that appeared to have been used for this purpose. 

"Of the roughly 450 accounts that Facebook recently shared as a part of their review, we concluded that 22 had corresponding accounts on Twitter," the statement said. 

"All of those identified accounts had already been or immediately were suspended from Twitter for breaking our rules ..