14/12/16 - Fake news could affect next UK election, warns Channel 4 executive

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/13/fake-news-could-affect-next-uk-election-warns-channel-4-executive

The Article says that fake news could affect the next UK election and that the government and companies such as Facebook need to do more in tackling the problem. The UK can easily have an equal issue with fake news as the US did with the presidential election. It is said that if companies on the internet don't do enough to tackle fake news, they  should be regulated the same way UK broadcasters are.

O 75% of US adults believed fake news headlines they were shown during a Buzzfeed Investigation.

I think that fake news is already affecting UK democracy even if it isn't as prominent as it is in the US. With the EU Referendum, lots of info was shared around suggesting that Remain was more popular, for a while this may have been right but ultimately the vote was oppositional. Even the smallest points of false information can have a massive affect because to many people have put themselves into 'echo chambers' where they only see one side of the story so they think that it is okay to not do anything especially if the results seem to be in favour of their chosen side. But it's not only the need to regulate more of the internet, both parties in any election need to use the internet to its best ability, if one has more of an influence/supporting online, they will most likely have the vote of the youth whom have typically not been reachable.