Like a shamed company announcing a product recall, Facebook bought full-page adverts in The New York Times and The Washington Post last week in an attempt to shore up its reputation. It was not suspending the social network that has become a ubiquitous news source and multibillion-dollar ad machine. But Russia’s weaponisation of Facebook to influence last year’s US election has raised grave questions about whether Mark Zuckerberg’s product is spinning out of control.

Facebook’s newspaper ads listed nine “immediate” actions it is taking to fight any attempt to interfere with elections by using its site. It also vowed to protect “its community”.

A 13-year-old company that began as a small online playground for college kids to snoop on crushes, today Facebook has more than 180m users in the US and Canada, a market value of more than $500bn and is a source of news for almost half of US adults.