NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is acknowledging that governments or other malicious non-state actors are using its social network to influence political sentiment in ways that could affect national elections.

It's a long way from CEO Mark Zuckerberg's assertion back in November that it was "pretty crazy" to think that false news on Facebook influenced the U.S. presidential election. It's also a major sign that the world's biggest social network is continuing to grapple with its outsized role in how the world communicates, for better or for worse.

In a paper posted online on Thursday, Facebook securi...