Facebook taps New York Times veteran to fight fake news

May 2 (UPI) -- Facebook has promoted Alex Hardiman, former vice president of news products at The New York Times, to lead efforts to stop the spreading of fake news and to help publishers make money.

Hardiman, who worked at The New York Times for 10 years, has led the Facebook Pages team for the past eight months, but in June she will lead Facebook's News products division, which will work to fight fake news and aid publishers in developing new formats. The division will also help publishers monetize content.

In a Facebook post, Hardiman said she and her colleagues "will work collaboratively with news organizations across the spectrum to build new storytelling formats, local news communities, monetization options, and more."

"We will spend time building better products and tools for journalists, working ... to strengthen the relationships and value exchange between Facebook and news providers. We will also partner with teams in Facebook to continue curbing the spread of false news," Hardiman wrote.

Facebook and other social media sources have been accused of not doing enough to combat fake news, which some critics say influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Initially, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the idea of Facebook influencing the election was "pretty crazy." But Zuckerberg has attempted to stem the flow of fake news by fine-tuning Facebook's algorithm.

In February, Zuckerberg lamented the rise of isolationism and said fake news creates polarization in beliefs.