French journalists are teaming up with US internet giants Google and Facebook to fight propaganda and misinformation online ahead of presidential elections.

The move mirrors similar efforts already under way in the US and Germany.

French daily Le Monde said it is one of eight media organisations working with social networking site Facebook to fact-check questionable content ahead of France's upcoming presidential poll.

At the same time, non-profit First Draft News announced the launch of CrossCheck, a verification project aimed at helping French voters "make sense of what and who to trust online".

Google's News Lab is also involved.

Google and Facebook have both been under increasing scrutiny over the spread of hoaxes, conspiracy theories and propaganda - sometimes referred to by the catch-all term "fake news".

Le Monde said the collaboration is "an experiment".

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