Leading German MPs have called for online “fake news” campaigns to be made a crime, amid growing concern Russia is using social media to influence Western elections.

“Targeted disinformation to destabilise a state should be a criminal offence,” Patrick Sensburg, a senior MP in Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, said.

“We need to consider whether there should be some sort of ‘test site’ that reveals and identifies propaganda pages,” he told the Funke group of German regional newspapers.

The call was backed by his party colleague Ansgar Heveling, the chairman of the German parliament’s influential internal affairs committee.

“We last saw disinformation campaigns during the Cold War, now they have clearly been revived with new media opportunities,” Mr Heveling told the Rheinische Post newspaper.