Facebook thought about disclosing election manipulation by Russia in April, but waited until September

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Facebook thought about disclosing election manipulation by Russia in April, but waited until September

mark zuckerberg

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook omitted references to Russia in a public report published in April about manipulation on the site during the 2016 election, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

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The company eventually disclosed in September that it had found about 3,000 ads from Russia-linked fake accounts. Those ads were viewed by about 10 million people, the company said. There may still be more Russia-linked abuse on Facebook that hasn't been discovered yet.

A Facebook spokesperson told the WSJ that the company didn't disclose the Russia-linked activity in April because the company was still looking into the matter. The 3,000 ads weren't discovered until after the April report.

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Facebook said last month that it would soon require more transparency from political ads. The company also said it would hire 1,000 more people to monitor ads for abuse.