There was also a correlation between the age and the level of education of social media users and the likelihood of them spotting fake news, with younger, highly educated users being the most likely.

Professor Spyros Angelopoulos says: “It’s difficult to place responsibility on which organisations should be removing and blocking fake news online.

!Though some social networking sites have begun removing posts of users who spread fake news, the threat is ever greater due to the emergence of new technologies such as deepfakes.

!It is, thus, imperative that social media users can identify which news stories are fake, so that the wider public is not affected—be it politically, health-wise or societally—by the spread of misinformation”.

These findings suggest that there is more to be done for tackling fake news on social media. Greater levels of identification and reporting will reduce the spread of fake news, and the researchers suggest that short training protocols should be in place to educate users and assist in countering the negative effects of fake news and misinformation.

Moreover, such training is likely to encourage social media users to obtain a more balance view of the news they consume, instead of being stuck in their political silos and bubbles on social media.