Facebook is tackling hoax stories in your News Feed

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FacebookImage source, Reuters

Hoaxes and fake stories in your News Feed should be a thing of the past, if Facebook's updated algorithm works.

The company has introduced an option to allow you to flag a story as "purposefully fake or deceitful news".

This should affect the distribution of that story, making it less likely to appear in your feed - but it won't be taken off Facebook altogether.

Hoaxes have tricked users in the past and with 1.35bn currently on Facebook, that's a lot of people to fool.

"A post with a link to an article that many people have reported as a hoax or chose to delete will get reduced distribution in the News Feed," Facebook explained.

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Examples of recent fake stories include dinosaur sightings and research claiming to prove the existence of Santa Claus.

Earlier this month users again started posting privacy notices - that's a response to a hoax from two years ago.

In the past, Facebook has been criticised for not doing enough to tackle illegitimate accounts; in 2012 the company admitted that more than 80m were likely to be fake.

At the time, the company said that "undesirable" accounts included those using fake names which were "intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as spamming".

About a third of adults in the US now use Facebook to get news updates, according to a 2013 study by the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S and James L Knight Foundation.

Fans of sites like The Onion should be reassured by Facebook's claim that "satirical" articles, "intended to be humorous, or content that is clearly labelled as satire," will not be affected.

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