Facebook criticised over Russian Brex intervention

British lawmaker Damian Collins has accused the social Facebook network of failing to investigate whether Russia has tried to influence last year's vote for Britain to leave the European Union.

Representatives of this social network said they only found three suspicious ads.

The leader for Culture and Media at the Great Britain Parliament, Damian Collins, has said that Facebook has restricted investigations into only one source of advertising -- that of the Internet Research Agency, which has been commented on according to US Intelligence agencies as the leading country from the Russian government has influenced last year's presidential elections in the US.

It seems that Facebook has not investigated fake accounts and sites that may be linked to Russian-backed agencies that have been active during the EU referendum, as I requested”, Collins said.

He has repeated his request to investigate any “advertising or page paid or opened about Russian accounts”, which have been active before and during June 23rd 2016, when voting was held whether Britain should leave the EU.

Facebook has rejected Collins's statements, saying his request was considered “very seriously”.

In a letter to the British Election Commission, Facebook has said they have identified 470 accounts related to the Internet Research Agency, and have said the agency has spent only 97 cents on three ads seen by the British audience during the Brex campaign.

Facebook added that all three ads have had license plates, U.S. audience and immigration concerns, not the Brex process.

The issue of immigration has been an important point in the Brex polls, as has last year's US presidential election.

Some investigators have said that the Internet Research Agency employs hundreds of people to post such content as the issue of immigration into social networks and seems to be the Kremlin's strategy to promote disagreements in the West.

Some of the Russian ads Facebook said earlier this year that they have reached more than 126 million Americans during the presidential campaign have had content linking crime immigrants and job losses.

Russia denies having intervened in the Brex process or the US election process.

While Facebook has said it has found little data about Russian efforts to intervene in the Brex vote, the same social network has said Russian companies have spent $100,000 on advertising aimed at interfering in US presidential elections.

The New York Times reported that a report by the Oxford Institute for the Internet will soon be published about whether Russian companies used Twitter or YouTube to influence the Brex vote.

The author of this study, Philip Howard, has said that the Russian “activity during the Brexit process has been minimal”.

The Times also said that media such as Sputnik and RT have been very active during this period in their English versions.