WASHINGTON –Russian Facebook ads bought in Rubles successfully mimicked American social causes – like Black Lives Matter, tea party patriots and confederate flag backers – and tricked hundreds of thousands of Americans into “liking” them, according to testimony Wednesday at a congressional hearing.

Images of the fake ads were released as lawyers from Facebook, Google and Twitter testified before the House and Senate on the vast Russian propaganda campaign that infiltrated their platforms and sowed political unrest during the 2016 presidential election.

A Facebook executive told Congress Russian-backed trolls spent $100,000 for more than 3,000 Facebook and Instagram ads between June 2015 and August 2017.

The ads were highly sophisticated in tapping into divisions regarding politics, immigration, race, religion, gun rights and police conduct.

“They were intended to drive followership of the pages,” Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told the House Intelligence Committee.

“It’s clear they were able to drive a significant following … for a relatively small amount of money,” Stretch added.

“It’s why this activity appears so pernicious. It was undertaken, I think, by people who understand social media. These people were not amateurs and I think (that) underscores the threat we’re facing and why we are so focused on addressing it going forward.”

Examples of Russian ads on Facebook pages included:

“Back the Badge” a community that supported police officers that was created Oct. 19, 2016 and paid for in 111,000 Rubles (or $1,900 US dollars). It generated 1.3 million ad impressions and 73,000 clicks. A “Blacktivist” page with the tagline “Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud” was also paid in Rubles worth about $2,100 on Dec.10, 2015 and generated 531,000 ad impressions and 32,000 clicks. The “Being Patriotic” ad had images of American flags and a bald eagle that said “welcome every patriot we can reach.” It cost 330,000 Rubles ($5,700) and generated 530,000 impressions and 72,000 ad clicks. A “South United’” page used a confederate flag graphic and said “the South will rise again!” It cost just 78,000 rubles ($1,300 US dollars) and netted 511,000 ad impressions.

Other Russia ads shared promoted pages for “Danney Williams” who it claimed was “the out-of-wedlock son of former President Bill Clinton.”

Others were about banning Sharia law and Muslim women from wearing burqas and anti-Hillary Clinton propaganda including images of the Democratic nominee dressed as the devil.

After a real US user liked the page, subscribers would continue to grow.

Postings would continue to spread that were shared in users news feeds. The ideologically-charged images were aimed at exploiting divisions and eroding trust.

Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), a former CIA undercover officer, said the online campaign “is going to go down in history as the greatest covert action campaign in history” by Russia.

Earlier Wednesday at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) showed two Facebook groups created by Russians – one called “Heart of Texas” that peddled anti-immigrant messages and one called “United Muslims of America” that promoted Islamic pride.

Both Facebook pages posted an event for noon on May 21, 2016 at a Houston Islamic center — one to protest Muslims and the other to promote Muslims. What was orchestrated in St. Petersburg, Russia for a cost of about $200 in Facebook ads resulted in a real-life clash covered by local news.

“What neither side could have known is that Russia trolls were encouraging both sides to battle in the streets and create division between real Americans,” Burr said. “…You must do better to protect the American people and frankly all of your users from this kind of manipulation.”