Facebook has launched a new campaign in the UK as part of its efforts to fight 'fake news' on the platform.

The campaign - which includes a newspaper ad featuring 'tips for spotting false news' - comes ahead of the UK general election next month.

Concerns over fake news became more pronounced in the lead-up to the US election last year, while French prosecutors have launched an investigation into alleged use of false information during the recent presidential campaign.

The Guardian reports that the social network has now deleted tens of thousands of 'bogus profiles' in a bid to slow the sharing of false information.

Facebook is also planning to support the UK fact-checking charity Full Fact.

A company spokesperson told The Guardian: “With these changes, we expect we will also reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts."

Meanwhile, an advertisement taken out in several British newspapers by Facebook offers up information on identifying fake news.

The list echoes the tips shared online by the company last month.

Among the ten suggestions, Facebook advises people to 'be skeptical of headlines', 'investigate the source', and to ask themselves 'is the story a joke?'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to tackle the proliferation of fake news on his company's platform.

He recently said: "Our approach will focus less on banning misinformation, and more on surfacing additional perspectives and information, including that fact checkers dispute an item's accuracy."

A BBC investigation set to broadcast tonight is said to examine how Facebook was a 'key influencer' in both the Brexit referendum campaign and the US presidential campaign last year.