UK gov to assemble media to create fake news action plan
The government has called upon UK newspapers to attend a roundtable on how to tackle fake news.
Donald Trump is at the centre of a fake news storm
Earlier this week, BBC News revealed that it has formed a taskforce to combat online untruths, after the EU referendum and US election underlined the effects on unchallenged falsehoods online.
Matt Hancock, the minister of state for digital and culture policy called the meeting in response to Buzzfeed's decision to publish a document claiming that Russia has intel on president-elect Donald Trump that could potentially compromise his presidency.
It comes after Hancock in November, promised to the House of Commons that he was "considering the implications of the dissemination of fake news on social media sites”.
Earlier in the week the Labour party demanded action be taken to curb "fake news", Hancock's meeting appears to on some level address these concerns.
During his speech, Hancock acknowledged the issues facing quality journalism: "There is a huge challenge in maintaining high-quality journalism when advertising revenues increasingly go to the platform, but the costs fall on the content provider or newspaper.”