Facebook acknowledged Monday that the explosion of social media poses a potential threat to democracy, pledging to tackle the problem head-on and turn its powerful platform into a force for "good."

The comments from the world's biggest social network were its latest response to intense criticism for failing to stop the spread of misinformation among its two billion users.

In a blog post, Facebook civic engagement chief Samidh Chakrabarti said he was "not blind to the damage that the internet can do to even a well-functioning democracy."

"In 2016, we at Facebook were far too slow to recognise how bad actors were abusing our platform," he said. "We're working  to neutralise these risks now."

The post was part of a high-profile push by FB to reboot its image. Last week it announcement that it would let users "rank" the trustworthiness of news sources to help stem the flow of false news

Facebook, along with Google and Twitter, faces global scrutiny for facilitating the spread of bogus news -- some of it directed by Russia -- ahead of the US election, the Brexit vote and other electoral battles.