A move by Facebook to raise awareness about fake news through adverts in various national newspapers has been given a cautious welcome by the Folkestone and Hythe Tory candidate Damian Collins.

The ads, in papers including The Times, The Guardian and Daily Telegraph, carry a list of 10 things to check when deciding if a story is genuine.

They include checking the article date and website address.

Facebook is being urged to tackle fake news in the run-up to the general election.

Mr Collins, who chairs the all-party committee on culture, media and sport, tweeted: “I welcome the measures announced by Facebook this morning to address #fakenews Education is key, but is no silver bullet.”

He said recently that voters could be deciding who to support on false information.

"The danger is, if for many people the main source of news is Facebook and if the news they get on Facebook is mostly fake news, they could be voting based on lies."

The KM Group has joined forces with local and regional newspapers to fight fake news.

Mr Collins said:

“The steps that the KM Group is taking are very important. For people concerned about fake news, what they should be doing is looking for sources they know and trust. And it is important that Google takes steps to give greater weight to media groups which are reliable and professional.”

Facebook needed to be more pro-active in tackling the issue, he added.

“It is good they are doing this because educating people about fake news is important. But it is also about how quickly they can take steps to deal with it and take sites down."

The KM Group believes that our role as an independent company is vital when it comes to providing objective, neutral and honest news, especially in the run-up to the general election.

We believe that the need for independent local newspapers to report on the issues in an honest and balanced way is essential.

At its most extreme, we believe fake news often comprises deliberately and maliciously contrived statements that are cynically distributed in the guise of real news with the aim of deceiving for political and financial gain.

Facebook said it had already removed "tens of thousands" of fake accounts and that systems were now monitoring the repeated posting of the same content or a sharp increase in messaging.

Its top tips for spotting fake news are:

• Be sceptical of headlines

• Look closely at the URL [web address]

• Investigate the source

• Watch for unusual formatting

• Consider the photos

• Check the date

• Check the evidence

• Look at other reports

• Is the story a joke?

• Some stories are intentionally false [satirical]