Brussels: EU Justice Chief Vera Jourova has criticised US tech giants such as Google and Facebook for making money off coronavirus-related fake news instead of putting in more efforts to stop the deluge.

With millions of people confined to their homes due to lockdowns to counter the spread of the virus, social media and online platforms have seen the volume of news on their sites and user traffic soar.

The big social media companies have been told their efforts to curb coronavirus fake news are outdated. Credit:AFR

That has in turn sparked alarm and criticism because of the flood of disinformation.

Jourova, who last week held a conference call with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla, said their efforts to date were inadequate.