--- title: Photos of the Memes Russia Spread to Influence Election 2016 description: House Democrats on a key intelligence committee Wednesday released ads that Russian-backed groups distributed through social media. canonical: https://time.com/5006056/russia-election-2016-memes/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-01T20:21:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:19:04.426Z og:title: Here Are the Memes that Russian Operatives Shared to Influence 2016 og:description: See the photos Russian-backed groups spread intended to stoke tension og:url: https://time.com/5006056/russia-election-2016-memes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd77d533298440f2a/6988e425bc6cfc32893e3c25/gettyimages-868974964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Facebook, Twitter And Google Executives Testify Before The Senate Intelligence Committee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here Are the Memes that Russian Operatives Shared to Influence 2016 twitter:description: See the photos Russian-backed groups spread intended to stoke tension twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd77d533298440f2a/6988e425bc6cfc32893e3c25/gettyimages-868974964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here Are the Memes that Russian Operatives Shared to Influence 2016 > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=1bbd18bd-0f45-40bc-8eeb-8c9eed0ed2ca&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Sen. Warner Said Russian Ads on Facebook Are Just "the Tip of a Very Large Iceberg" [Watch (HLS stream): Sen. Warner Said Russian Ads on Facebook Are Just "the Tip of a Very Large Iceberg"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ka136ody.m3u8) (0:54)  _Published 2017-11-02. Sen. Warner Said Russian Ads on Facebook Are Just "the Tip of a Very Large Iceberg"_ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Nov 1, 2017 8:21 PM UTC Sen. Warner Said Russian Ads on Facebook Are Just "the Tip of a Very Large Iceberg" by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Nov 1, 2017 8:21 PM UTC [Russian operatives](http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/) created a variety of low-budget graphics and videos as part of their attempts to influence Americans on [social media during the 2016 presidential election](http://time.com/4930532/facebook-russian-accounts-2016-election/). House Democrats on a key intelligence committee Wednesday released 14 ads from Russian-backed groups that were distributed through Facebook. Among other things, the ads show a Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders-themed coloring book for supporters and a father teaching his child to use a gun. They appear aimed at stoking tension among different groups of Americans, with ads appearing to build support for Sanders, while other ads sought to provoke concern about immigration and the media. Here’s a quick look at some of the ads that were distributed on online platforms as a part of the multilevel scheme.  Courtesy of U.S. House of Representatives.  Courtesy of U.S. House of Representatives.  Courtesy of U.S. House of Representatives. ## Transcript [00:00] For Facebook, much of the attention has been focused on [00:04] the paid ads that Russian trolls targeted to Americans. [00:08] However, these ads are just the tip of a very [00:12] large iceberg. The real story is the amount of [00:17] misinformation In divisive content that was pushed [00:21] for free on Russian backed pages, which was then [00:25] spread widely on news feeds of tens of millions of [00:28] Americans. According to the data Facebook have provided, [00:32] 120 Russian backed pages built [00:37] a network of over 3. 3 million people. From [00:41] these now- suspended pages, 80, 000 organic [00:46] unpaid posts reached an estimated 126 [00:51] million real people, more than a third of the population. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5006056/russia-election-2016-memes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5006056/russia-election-2016-memes/"},"headline":"Here Are the Memes that Russian Operatives Shared to Influence 2016","datePublished":"2017-11-01T20:21:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T08:19:04.426Z","description":"House Democrats on a key intelligence committee Wednesday released ads that Russian-backed groups distributed through social media.","url":"https://time.com/5006056/russia-election-2016-memes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","russia","politics","viral","White House","Election 2016","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd77d533298440f2a/6988e425bc6cfc32893e3c25/gettyimages-868974964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd77d533298440f2a/6988e425bc6cfc32893e3c25/gettyimages-868974964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Facebook, Twitter And Google Executives Testify Before The Senate Intelligence Committee","caption":"Facebook, Twitter And Google Executives Testify Before The Senate Intelligence Committee","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5006056/russia-election-2016-memes/","name":"Here Are the Memes that Russian Operatives Shared to Influence 2016"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sen. 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