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Labour is to launch a major inquiry into the ‘fake news’ websites which experts fear helped put Donald Trump in the White House.

Deputy leader Tom Watson said the viral spread of misinformation on sites like Facebook are a ”threat to democracy” and urged social media giants to take action.

Outgoing President Barack Obama has already voiced his alarm after stats showed more people engaged with fake news stories about the US election on Facebook than real facts.

Mr Watson, who is also Labour’s shadow culture secretary, told the Mirror: “The lies spread by fake news sites are a threat to our democracy.

“Voters who want facts are being duped by websites which make stories up.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Experts have highlighted how the internet was flooded with misinformation about defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the US election.

Analysis by Buzzfeed shows fake news stories received more than 8.7million shares, reactions and comments on Facebook in the last three months of the campaign.

The most popular stories included false claims that the Pope had endorsed Donald Trump, that Hillary Clinton had sold weapons to ISIS, and that she was actually disqualified by law from holding public office.

Some of the fake news is being spread by political activists trying to discredit an opponent, while other stories are invented by hoax sites to make money when they go viral online.

Speaking in Germany last week, President Obama warned the way news articles are shared on Facebook means some people fail to distinguish between trusted sources and hoax sites.

(Image: Getty)

“If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not, if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems,” he said.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg insists he is taking the issue “seriously” and that his firm “have been working on this problem for a long time”.

But German spies are also reportedly concerned that fake news could be used to disrupt next autumn’s crunch general election.

Labour are now planning to set up a specialist panel and quiz experts about the scale of the problem here in the UK.

(Image: Getty)

Mr Watson said: “Good journalism is important because it exposes false claims and checks facts - but those rules don’t apply to social media companies.

“They need to crack down on the dodgy sites who use their platforms to peddle untruths.

“Labour’s inquiry will look at how to do this. It will also ask if accuracy online can be improved by allowing users to rate or check stories themselves.”