This marks the first time the company has publicly acknowledged the existence of such events, which were promoted using paid ads. Although the August 27 rally in Idaho has been deleted (along with many of the other meet-ups), The Daily Beast did manage to identify it from search engine caches. The 3-hour protest titled "Citizens before refugees" was apparently held in Twin Falls, a town that's been resettling refugees for decades. In recent years, however, it's been at the centre of misinformation campaigns conducted online, and by conspiracy theorists (including InfoWars' Alex Jones).

Judging by its rhetoric, the Russia-backed event preyed on the fears raised by these false reports. "Due to the town of Twin Falls, Idaho, becoming a center of refugee resettlement, which led to the huge upsurge of violence towards American citizens, it is crucial to draw society's attention to this problem," the event notice reportedly said. It was hosted by "Secured Borders," an anti-immigrant group outed as a Russian stooge. Its Facebook page was shut down as part of the site's recent clean-up efforts.

Only 48 people clicked that they were "interested" in the event, with four stating that they "went." That's a small number, but the extent of these types of paid posts is still unclear. Facebook hasn't clarified how many of these events were created on its platform, and whether they've already taken place.

We reached out to Facebook for a comment, but did not immediately receive a response.