Facebook Asks Users if They Think It's 'Good for the World'

Facebook is asking users whether they think it's "good for the world" in a poll sent to an unspecified number of people.

The poll appears under the heading, "We'd like to do better," when users log in. Possible responses range from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree."

The company has been grappling with a privacy scandal and other troubles. But Facebook says this survey began well before that; versions date back to 2012. The company regularly polls users on other aspects of its service, too.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he wants to ensure that Facebook is a force for good. Whether it is hasn't been clear amid revelations of bad actors using Facebook to influence elections, spread hatred and pilfer user information.

Separately, Facebook is expanding its response to people using the platform improperly and on Tuesday said it had deleted hundreds of Russian accounts and pages associated with a "troll factory" indicted by US prosecutors for fake activist and political posts in the 2016 US election campaign.

Facebook said many of the deleted articles and pages came from Russia-based Federal News Agency, known as FAN, and that the social media company's security team had concluded that the agency was technologically and structurally intertwined with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told Reuters in an exclusive interview that the agency "has repeatedly acted to deceive people and manipulate people around the world, and we don't want them on Facebook anywhere."

Written with agency inputs