Facebook has admitted it was "far too slow to recognise" Russian election interference and the spread of fake news on the social networking site.
In a blog post on social networks and their influence, product manager Samidh Chakrabarti said that at its worst social media "allows people to spread misinformation and corrode democracy".
Alongside a debate about influence on the 2016 US election, the social media giant is currently also investigating Russian influence in UK politics in relation to a parliamentary inquiry into fake news.
Chakrabarti said Facebook did not have all the answers to combat misinformation, but the firm knew it had a "moral duty" to respond to it and make "communities like Facebook as representative, civil and trustworthy as possible".
He said Russia had used social media as an "information weapon" around the 2016 presidential election, working in part by promoting "in-authentic pages", something Chakrabarti said the site was now fixing.
On the subject of fake news and misinformation, Chakrabarti said new ways to report false information and partnerships with third-party fact checkers were being used to curb its rise.
"We've made it easier to report false news and have taken steps in partnership with third-party fact checkers to rank these stories lower in News Feed.
"Once our fact checking partners label a story as false, we're able to reduce future impressions of the story on Facebook by 80 per cent."
He also warned of the dangers of social media "echo chambers" where users only see viewpoints they agree with, adding that the firm is testing a "related articles" feature that shows users other articles about the stories they're reading.
