Facebook: Clinton, Trump campaigns spent a combined $81M on ads

Facebook revealed on Wednesday that the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spent a combined $81 million on election ads during last year’s presidential race.

The news came during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing focused on Russia’s use of social media platforms to try to sway the outcome of the election.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) asked Facebook’s general counsel, Colin Stretch, about the campaigns’ spending figures to contrast them with the amount spent on political ads by a Russian “troll farm.”

Stretch said that the fake Russian accounts had spent about $46,000 on ads in the run-up to the election.

The campaigns’ expenditures on Facebook have not been available in public filings because the ad purchases are often made through intermediaries.