Facebook and Twitter contend with their role in Trump's victory

San Francisco

AMERICA has just endured its first presidential election in which the majority of the electorate got its news from social media. And the outcome is already prompting soul-searching by the companies that shaped it.

Facebook Inc will have to contend with mounting dissatisfaction over its role as the most widely used news filter in history. Forty-four per cent of American adults get their media through the site, many consuming news from partisan sources with which they agree. The proliferation of fake news on Facebook has also been a problem: false stories about the Clinton family committing murder and Huma Abedin being a terrorist flew fast and furious despite refutations from responsible news organisations.