It is the term du jour, thrown around by everyone from Donald Trump to Australian politicians, unhappy with how a particular news story paints them.
But now Labor senator Sam Dastyari believes he has the numbers to have the Senate investigate "fake news" and its impact on Australia to identify who is responsible and how to combat it.
It is understood internet giants Facebook and Google would be called to discuss how they are combating the phenomenon.
The inquiry, for which terms are still be negotiated, would look at identifying groups most vulnerable to fake news, measure the impact on traditional journalism, and assess the liability of online advertisers and "click-bait" in spreading the hoaxes.
Fake news is considered deliberate misinformation or hoaxes dressed up as legitimate news stories and was believed to have been a factor in the most recent US election, with stories, such as "pizzagate" shared millions of times across social media sites, despite repeated denials.
But the term has been hijacked with politicians across the globe and closer to home, labelling legitimate stories as fake news when they don't like the story, or angle.
Senator Dastyari said Australia needed to address the issue to see if any legislation was needed to combat it.
"The news feeds on social media of Australians are being loaded with what can only be described as 'fake news'," he said.
"Some of it is commercial click-bait - some of it - more worryingly - may have more malicious objectives.
"When fake news starts skewing political outcomes - we have a problem.
"Let's address the issue now, before we have the same problems being encountered in the USA."
The UK Parliament launched a similar inquiry earlier this year, with the inquiry chair labelling the phenomenon a "threat to democracy [which] undermines confidence in the media in general".
But the media director of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Katelin McInerney, said fake news was not prevalent in Australia and there were "far more pressing issues that the Parliament should be addressing", including protections for whistleblowers and defamation.
In the wake of the US election and the growing concern over fake news and the role social media played in spreading it, Facebook and Google announced changes to tackle it, with articles debunked by legitimate sources and fact-checkers, with stories flagged as hoaxes.
