Editor's note: This piece has been updated numerous times and will continue to be updated as new revelations emerge.

Facebook played a vital role in the outcome of the 2016 election—ask any digital director on one of the presidential campaigns, or maybe some Russian propagandists.

News that Facebook took at least $100,000 from Russian troll farms to promote socially and politically divisive content reignited discussion around just how much of an impact Facebook had in getting Donald Trump elected.

It also begged a serious question: Had Facebook helped Russia manipulate the outcome?

"They can stop me from selling a gun to my neighbor on Facebook, but they can’t stop Russians from buying ads that are fake news?" said Wesley Donehue, senior digital strategist for Marco Rubio's campaign and CEO of Charleston based Push Digital. "That’s just negligence."

In the past year, Facebook's message on its role in the election has changed dramatically. CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg went from saying fake news and Facebook affecting the election was a "crazy idea" to instituting a major crackdown on shady publishers and creating a task force within the company dedicated to investigating the spread of misinformation.

Meanwhile, evidence of Russia's efforts to help Trump win mounted, as did reports that members of the Trump campaign were in contact with Russian agents.

Now, it's clear that Russia's efforts to help elect Donald Trump included manipulating Facebook. And nobody is quite sure how deep this rabbit hole is going to go.

Here's what we know happened:

2014 - present

Ukrainian activists allege Russian trolls pushed to get them off Facebook by reporting their anti-Kremlin posts as hate speech or porn, The Daily Beast reported in September 2017. It is the first known example of Russians using Facebook to affect another country's politics.

May 15, 2015

At a town fall for Facebook employees, Zuckerberg addressed this question submitted by a Facebook user: “The users whose opinions differ from those of the Kremlin are blocked, though they do not violate any community rules."

He defended his site's actions by citing the company's policies. “We did the right thing according to our policies in taking down the posts. I support our policies in taking down hate speech,” Zuckerberg said, according to The Daily Beast.

December 11, 2015

Republican candidate Ted Cruz's campaign was exposed for using psychological data pulled from tens of millions of Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, The Guardian reported. The firm was later connected to the Trump campaign.

January 2016

Zuckerberg meets with then-President Barack Obama and aides to talk about ISIS and counterterrorism efforts on Facebook following the shootings in San Bernardino. There was discussion of fake news and the election but no talk of Russia or other foreign entities, The Washington Post reported in September.

April 2016

Facebook employees used a company poll to ask Zuckerberg if the company should try "to help prevent President Trump in 2017," Gizmodo reported.

June 2016

Facebook approached the FBI with evidence of Russian accounts on the platform. The company's security team had uncovered accounts linked to a Kremlin-backed hacking team APT28, according to The Washington Post.

July 2016

The FBI confirmed it opened an investigation into the hacking of the DNC's computer network. It is the first time Russian interference in the U.S. election is publicly confirmed to be under investigation.

The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2016

October 2016

The Wall Street Journal reported Zuckerberg ruled it would be inappropriate to censor Trump's posts.

October 27, 2016

Details on Trump's digital operation called "Project Alamo" are explored in a Bloomberg report. For example, his team created a Facebook ad with the text, “Hillary Thinks African Americans are Super Predators," and targeted it to African American voters in order to "depress Clinton’s vote total," Bloomberg wrote.

“I wouldn’t have come aboard, even for Trump, if I hadn’t known they were building this massive Facebook and data engine,” Steve Bannon told Bloomberg. “Facebook is what propelled Breitbart to a massive audience. We know its power.”

November 10, 2016

Zuckerberg made his first public statements about the effect of fake news on the election. He rejected the notion that it had any impact.





“Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way. I think is a pretty crazy idea. Voters make decisions based on their lived experience," Zuckerberg said.

November 12, 2016

Zuckerberg published a blog post saying 99 percent of what people see on Facebook is authentic.

November 14, 2016

Facebook employees spoke out against Zuckerberg's dismissal of fake news affecting the election and formed an "unofficial task force," BuzzFeed reported.

November 15, 2016

In an interview with Wired, Trump's digital director Brad Parscale said, "Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing. Twitter for Mr. Trump. And Facebook for fundraising."

Meanwhile, Facebook and Google said they would no longer allow ads to appear on fake news sites via their advertising networks.

November 19, 2016

Zuckerberg published a late-night blog post on steps his company was taking to fight fake news.

"The bottom line is: we take misinformation seriously," Zuckerberg wrote. "We take this responsibility seriously. We've made significant progress, but there is more work to be done."

November 20, 2016

Obama spoke with Zuckerberg about fake news at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru. That conversation was not about Russia or other foreign influence, Elliot Schrage, Facebook's vice president for public policy and communications, clarified in a statement following a September 2017 report by The Washington Post on the meeting.

November 21, 2016

Stories of fake news writers were shared, such as Tess Townsend's story on Ovidiu Drobota for Inc.

"I am not related with the Trump campaign. I am just a Trump supporter. I don't like to be in public because a lot of liberals calls [sic] me a racist, which I am not. I have a lot of Facebook messages. They are harassing me. I also don't have any relation with Russia or WikiLeaks. Just to be clear," Drobota said.

November 22, 2016

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner talked about targeting voters on Facebook as part of a Forbes cover story.

"Chatting over McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, Trump and Kushner talked about how the campaign was underutilizing social media. The candidate, in turn, asked his son-in-law to take over his Facebook initiative," Forbes wrote.

"I called somebody who works for one of the technology companies that I work with, and I had them give me a tutorial on how to use Facebook micro-targeting," Kushner told Forbes.

December 2016

Facebook began working with third-party fact-checking sites and rolling out fake news labels on stories posted to the site.

January 6, 2017

A report from the Director of National Intelligence linked social media and Russian propaganda advocating for Trump's election.

"A journalist who is a leading expert on the Internet Research Agency claimed that some social media accounts that appear to be tied to Russia’s professional trolls—because they previously were devoted to supporting Russian actions in Ukraine—started to advocate for President-elect Trump as early as December 2015," the report read.

April 28, 2017

Facebook released a white paper that includes investigations of fake news during the election. The report said they could not determine who the malicious actors were, but they did not contradict the earlier report from the Director of National Intelligence on Russia's involvement.

"When asked we said there was no evidence of Russian ads. That was true at the time," a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable Thursday.

June 28, 2017

Facebook updated product to not allow Page owners to modify text in shared links, hoping to prevent writing fake news headline. This is one of the ways a propaganda machine could make news stories appear differently on Facebook compared to on a website.

July 20, 2017

A CNN report revealed that Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, who serves in the Senate intelligence committee, met with Facebook officials in June "as part of his committee's investigation into potential collusion or election interference" with Russia.

Trump digital staffer Gary Coby told CNN that the campaign had not coordinated with Russian operatives but that Facebook did work directly with the Trump campaign.

August 13, 2017

The BBC released an interview with Theresa Hong, one of the members of Trump's digital operations. She repeatedly said how important Facebook was to the campaign.

“Without Facebook we wouldn’t have won. Facebook really and truly put us over the edge," Hong said.

August 28, 2017

Facebook released an update to prevent pages that share fake news articles from advertising, which is one of the most popular ways to distribute false information on the social network.

September 6, 2017

Facebook revealed in a blog post that as much as $100,000 in political ads was spent by potential Russian propaganda sides. These ad buys were from June 2015 to May 2017 and associated with roughly 3,000 ads connected to 470 inauthentic Facebook accounts and Pages, according to Facebook.

September 7, 2017

Sen. Mark Warner of the Senate Intelligence Committee said during a panel hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance that Facebook's report on $100,000 spend by Russian sites was "the tip of the iceberg," CNN reported.

A New York Times investigation revealed more mechanisms on Facebook and Twitter with Russian fingerprints.

September 11, 2017

The Daily Beast reported some of the $100,000 spend from Facebook accounts linked to Russia wasn't just directed to promoting fake news articles. The 3,000 ads included promotions for political protests around pro-Trump policies like anti-immigration.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the development, which was not included in the public blog post but was seemingly part of intelligence briefings. Facebook's internal investigation is still ongoing.

September 15, 2017

Special counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller obtained a search warrant that forced Facebook to hand over the 3,000 ads and share more information about them, according to CNN.

September 20, 2017

House and Senate Democrats sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission requesting regulations for online advertising that could help prevent foreign states from advertising, CNN reported.

"This could be its finest hour to respond this threat to American democracy," Rep. John Sarbanes told CNN.

Twitter scheduled a meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee to answer questions on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Company representatives will meet with lawmakers on September 27.

September 21, 2017

Facebook agreed to hand over the content of 3,000 ads to Congress.

Zuckerberg hosted a Facebook Live, where he shared why they made this choice and also "our next steps protecting election integrity." Those next steps included better regulating itself for political advertising. The company will now keep track of who buys ads and who they target to and also make this information publicly available.

September 22, 2017

Russia's government denied using Facebook ads to influence the 2016 election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters, according to Reuters.

“We do not know ... how to place an advert on Facebook. We have never done this, and the Russian side has never been involved in it,” Peskov said.

September 24, 2017

New report from The Washington Post revealed details on meeting between Obama and Zuckerberg in November, days after the election, and the fact that Facebook alerted the FBI to Russia-linked accounts in June 2016.

“We believe in the power of democracy, which is why we’re taking this work on elections integrity so seriously, and have come forward at every opportunity to share what we’ve found," Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy and communications, said in a statement following WaPo's story Sunday.

September 26, 2017

Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor threatens to block access to Facebook in Russia next year if the company doesn't comply with a law that requires them to store personal data of Russian citizens on Russian servers, according to Reuters.

September 27, 2017

Senate Intelligence Committee invited Facebook to testify in an opening hearing on Nov. 1 about how foreign actors may have used the social network to influence the 2016 election.

The committee also invited Google and Twitter.

Meanwhile, The Daily Beast revealed some of the strategies Russian actors used to persuade Facebook users during the 2016 election. For example, a fake "United Muslims of America" Facebook Page shared memes that alleged Hillary Clinton said the U.S. "created, funded and armed al-Qaeda." Fake memes tied to Russian accounts were also shared on Instagram and Twitter.

Zuckerberg responded to President Trump calling his platform "anti-Trump" in a tweet in a rather defensive Facebook post.

"Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don't like. That's what running a platform for all ideas looks like," he wrote.

September 28, 2017

Russia's interference wasn't just via Facebook. Twitter said it had discovered about 200 accounts linked to Russia and that 22 of them appeared to be from the same entities that shared fake news and memes on Facebook.

Twitter reported news site Russia Today spent $274,100 in U.S. ads in 2016 that promoted 1,823 tweets.

September 30, 2017

On Yom Kippur, Zuckerberg reflected on the role his platform played in the election in a Facebook post.

"For those I hurt this year, I ask forgiveness and I will try to be better," he wrote. "For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I will work to do better."

October 2, 2017

Facebook handed the 3,000 ads and other information to Congress. A New York Times report revealed some of the content and strategies behind the ads. For example, one Facebook Page that shared political ads was called "Defend the 2nd" on gun rights and one was called "LGBT United." There was another that typically shared dog-related posts.

Facebook announced it's hiring more than 1,000 people to review ads on the social network and other initiatives to improve authenticity and transparency of its advertising.

Late Monday night, Facebook reported 10 million users saw the Russian-linked political ads.

October 3, 2017

Some of the Russian-linked Facebook ads targeted users in Michigan and Wisconsin, two of the states crucial to President Trump's victory, CNN reported. The posts specifically targeted key demographic groups in those states.

Facebook had previously said the ads were targeted but did not reveal specifics on where. This is the biggest piece of evidence yet that Russia directly attempted to swing the election in favor of Trump.

October 4, 2017

Facebook and Twitter agreed to testify at a Nov. 1 hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The news arrived just as Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Mark Warner held a press conference to provide updates on what their team has done since launching the investigation on Russia's interference in January.

The companies did not say which executives will participate. Google has not said if it will attend despite the Senate's invite.

October 5, 2017

Facebook removed references to Russia from a public report about the 2016 election, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Facebook's lawyers apparently recommended the removal believing "the company’s understanding of Russian activity was too speculative," according to the Journal.

October 6, 2017

Popular 'Blacktivist' social media accounts were run by a Russia-linked group, according to CNN. During the 2016 election, they spread pro-racial diversity messaging and promoted anti-police brutality events.

Facebook suspended the accounts and delivered information on them to the U.S. government's investigative team on the Russian hack and to Congress.

Recode reported 150 of the 3,000 political ads Facebook sold to Russia during the 2016 election were shared on Instagram.

October 8, 2017

Trump campaign digital director Brad Parscale spoke with Facebook on 60 Minutes and said several Facebook employees as well as people from Twitter and Google were embedded in with the campaign.

"I think Donald Trump won, but I think Facebook was the method – it was the highway in which his car drove on," he said. "Facebook was the 500-pound gorilla, 80 percent of the budget kind of thing."

Parscale denied the campaign colluded with Russia.

"It's just a joke," he said.

Facebook denied Parscale's claim that his team hand picked Facebook employees to work for them.

The denial appeared in a quiet update to Facebook's Hard Questions blog after Parscale's appearance on 60 Minutes.

On the same day, news broke that Russians sponsored YouTube accounts like "Williams and Kalvin" to promote pro-Bernie Sanders, pro-Donald Trump, and anti-Hillary Clinton messages, The Daily Beast reported.

Facebook and Twitter had removed those affiliated accounts in August. YouTube did not.

October 9, 2017

Google discovered that Russian agents spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads across Google's products: YouTube, Google search, Gmail, and DoubleClick, The Washington Post reported.

Google made this discovery via available Twitter data, not in cooperation with Google's separate investigation.

October 12, 2017

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, said during an interview with Axios that she wants lawmakers to let the public see the ads linked to Russian accounts that were distributed on Facebook. It was the first public interview of a Facebook executive since the company revealed it had sold the ads.

Sandberg did not elaborate on whether the Russian ads and the Trump campaign were linked despite being asked on three separate occasions.

October 19, 2017

New legislation was proposed for regulating advertising on Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner, with support from Republican Sen. John McCain, co-sponsored a bill called the "Honest Ads Act" that would require internet companies to keep a public database of who is paying for political ads on their networks.

October 24, 2017

Twitter said it will start to clearly label political ads on its social platform and is committing to stricter guidelines for ad targeting.

Political ads on Twitter will most likely include a purple dot next to the user handle as well as a purple box below the tweet that names the sponsor.

October 27, 2017

Facebook revealed its plans to make its advertising more transparent. Users will be able to see each of the ads that any given page is running. The company is also introducing stricter verification rules on any advertisers running election-related ads.

October 30, 2017

Facebook said Russia-linked Facebook accounts reached as many as 126 million users in a pre-release of its prepared testimony from General Counsel Colin Stretch.

That's far greater than the 10 million users Facebook estimated saw Russian-linked ads.

* * * *

What Zuckerberg once thought was a "crazy idea" is now reality—misleading information and propaganda spread on Facebook during the 2016 election.

"We knew [fake news] was happening, but I didn’t stop and appreciate the scale of it," said Kevin Bingle, digital director for John Kasich's presidential campaign. Bingle said he once saw an example of fake news about his candidate right around the Republican National Convention. An article apparently from the fake news site The Washington Daily ("or something") had the headline, "Breaking News: John Kasich has left the GOP." He saw that it had 37,000 shares.

"Okay so 37,000 people could have seen it? No, no, no it’s much much larger than that, all the friends that engage in your content. That’s magnitudes of tens of hundreds of thousands, Bingle said.

The severity of the problem is emphasized by the many efforts that Facebook has employed to curb the manipulation of its platform. These actions are necessary for the good of future elections and for news consumption in general.

But Zuckerberg could yet face a day in court to testify on behalf of his social network. Sharing fake news on Facebook is not illegal, unless it's the case of a foreign entity interfering in the election, and Facebook's latest report shows that Russia could have been directly involved.

The U.S. government and Facebook are still investigating the matter for more proof. As Sen. Warner said, $100,000 may just be the beginning.











