While Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg was busy answering questions on Capitol Hill about privacy and electoral manipulation, Reddit decided to announce that it is banning more than 900 “suspicious accounts” that it believes were connected to a notorious Russian “troll farm”.

A total of 944 accounts “of suspected Russian Internet Research Agency origin” will be removed from the message board site, Reddit chief executive Steve Huffman said in a post on Tuesday afternoon.

Reddit had previously disclosed in March that a “few hundred” accounts had been part of a Russian disinformation campaign leading up to the 2016 US election. Its annual transparency report on Tuesday gave a more thorough description of the accounts.

“Few” of the 944 accounts had a “visible impact on the site”, Mr Huffman said, and 145 had been banned before the 2016 election took place.

“Our investigation did not find any election-related advertisements of the nature found on other platforms, through either our self-serve or managed advertisements,” Mr Huffman said. “I also want to be very clear that none of the 944 users placed any ads on Reddit. We also did not detect any effective use of these accounts to engage in vote manipulation.”

Senator Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Senate select committee on intelligence, said he welcomed Reddit’s disclosure but called on internet companies to do “everything in their power” to prevent electoral interference.

“As the 2018 elections approach, I will continue pressing the nation’s intelligence leaders and social media companies to be far more aggressive and proactive in responding to this threat,” he said.

“It’s clear that the Kremlin will use any means at its disposal to spread propaganda and misinformation, and we each bear some responsibility for exercising good judgment and a healthy amount of scepticism when it comes to the things we read and spread on social media.”

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