Fake news about coronavirus reaches more than a billion social media accounts - and a quarter of Brits believe some of it, experts have warned.
Research by the Oxford Internet Institute found the average piece of junk health news online has about the same distribution as an article from the BBC.
The Institute’s director, Professor Philip Howard, told a committee of MPs most Covid-19 misinformation was created by state-run agencies in China and Russia, and almost all of it was targeted at users in the UK and US.
He told the Commons Digital Committee: “In the past couple of weeks we've learned misinformation reaches a billion social media user accounts around the world and much of this content is generated by state-run agencies. “And much of