MPs said that what was needed to deal with the proliferation of disinformation online and the misuse of personal data was a "radical shift in the balance of power between social media platforms and the people".

The inquiry into fake news, which lasted more than a year, was conducted by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, with much of the evidence focusing on the business practices of Facebook before and after the Cambridge Analytica scandal...

"The big tech companies are failing in the duty of care they owe to their users to act against harmful content, and to respect their data privacy rights."

The report called for:

• a compulsory code of ethics for tech companies, overseen by an independent regulator
• the regulator to be given powers to launch legal action if companies breach the code...
• social media companies to be forced to take down known sources of harmful content, including proven sources of disinformation...

In response, Facebook said: "We share the committee's concerns about false news and election integrity and are pleased to have made a significant contribution to their investigation over the past 18 months, answering more than 700 questions and with four of our most senior executives giving evidence.

"We are open to meaningful regulation and support the committee's recommendation for electoral law reform. But we're not waiting. We have already made substantial changes so that every political ad on Facebook has to be authorised, state who is paying for it and then is stored in a searchable archive for seven years. No other channel for political advertising is as transparent and offers the tools that we do." ...