How to Tell if It’s a Russian Political Ad

This week, lawyers and executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter will be testifying to Congress. In the last few days, they have been grilled by lawmakers from both parties over the extent to which Russia flooded American social media walls with what amounts to Russian propaganda, disguised as patriotic political advertising.

We all know that there’s a lot of nonsense on social media (like A-LOT) – so how can normal folks tell if they are looking at a legit post, or a Russian political ad?

After Facebook and Instagram released some examples of verified Russian political ads, some patterns started to emerge. Here’s some diagrams (from the Washington Post) that explain the anatomy of a Russian political ad.