Google will remove ads from fake news sites, Facebook follows suit

US tech giants Google and Facebook have both pledged to pull advertising from news sites which publish fake content, after criticism of misinformation surrounding the reporting of the US election.

Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become the president-elect last week, but his victory has sparked a further debate about how news is being distributed via various social media outlets, and how it is not always authentic.

On Monday, the two companies responded to criticism that the news displayed on their sites influenced the result of the election, in a shift which could prove damaging for so-called "clickbait" sites which thrive on advertising revenue for questionable content.

In a statement, Google said it would be restricting advertising on articles which "misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information".

Facebook followed suit just hours later, after founder Mark Zuckerberg said earlier on Monday that the social network had work to do to combat fake news publishers, but denied that the result of the election was influenced by such hoax content.

The Facebook Audience Network policy was reworded to say it does not display ads on misleading news sites.

"We have updated the policy to explicitly clarify that this applies to fake news," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "Our team will continue to closely vet all prospective publishers and monitor existing ones to ensure compliance."

There has been a growing outcry over the peddling of hoax news articles on social network sites, where a study has found that over 62% of people now receive their news.