After much criticism that fake news, found on arguably the two most influential sites on the Internet, had an impact on the presidential election, Google and Facebook are taking action.

According to a New York Times article, Google announced that they would ban websites that support fake news from using its advertising service. Facebook soon followed with an announcement that it will not display ads in sites that present misleading content, including fake news sites.

An article by BuzzFeed News revealed that in the last three months of the presidential campaign, the top-performing fake news sites on Facebook generated more clicks, reactions, comments, shares and likes than the top stories from major news outlets, including the New York Times, NBC News, and others.

Nearly 1.8 billion people around the world use Facebook according to the article, and nearly half of American adults use it as a news source. 

To read the full story in the New York Times, click here. 

To read the report by BuzzFeed News, click here.