Facebook to inform users that interacted with Russian bots

US tech giant Facebook has announced it will show users of the social network whether it interacted with pages set up by Russian bots during the presidential election last year.

The company had previously said that as many as 126m US citizens may have seen content uploaded by so-called 'fake news' pages set up by Russia-based actors.

Facebook said it will let users know if they liked or shared any posts from pages set up by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), an organisation backed by the Kremlin which orchestrates misinformation campaigns.

Users will be able to access the tool before the end of 2017, the company said in a statement.

"A few weeks ago, we shared our plans to increase the transparency of advertising on Facebook. This is part of our ongoing effort to protect our platforms and the people who use them from bad actors who try to undermine our democracy," Facebook said

"It is important that people understand how foreign actors tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US election."

US Congress and intelligence agencies are currently investigating the extent to which Russian agents attempted to influence the 2016 election, where Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.

Facebook said it would continue to hand over any information it sees as relevant to Congress to aid the investigation.

"That’s why as we have discovered information, we have continually come forward to share it publicly and have provided it to congressional investigators," the statement added.