Misinformation is defined as false, inaccurate or misleading information which is manufactured, presented and promoted for profit or to the detriment of public interest. Such information can undermine democratic processes and values and target various sectors such as health, science, education and the financial sector. The promotion of media literacy to tackle misinformation, the development of tools to enable users and journalists to tackle misinformation, to ensure the diversity and sustainability of European media and the continuing research on the impact of misinformation in Europe, are strong necessities.

The purpose of this study was to examine and discuss what future primary school teachers know about the phenomenon of misinformation on the internet and what behaviors they adopt towards it. The research questions of the study concern the degree of trust in the information that young pre-service teachers find on the internet, the frequency of false news they encounter, and the skills they have to check the reliability and validity of the news. The study was a quantitative research using a questionnaire as a research tool. The questionnaire consisted of four parts: Part A was related to demographic data; Part B was related to participants' knowledge, attitudes and behaviors concerning misinformation (fifteen (15) questions with responses on a five-point Likert scale); Part C was related to participants' knowledge, attitudes and behaviors about misinformation and fake news (six (6) questions with multiple responses); and Part D was a four (4) question quiz on the validity of news on the internet.

The questionnaire was answered by two hundred and sixty-nine (269) pre-service teachers/students of the Department of Educational Sciences and Social Work of the University of Patras.

The findings of the study revealed that pre-service teachers prefer social media for accessing information and trust social media more than TV and websites. They believe that they are often treated with news and information with unreliable facts or a misrepresentation of the reality of a situation or event. They do not feel able to successfully assess the validity of news in posts and they feel not skilled enough to critically and correctly judge the validity of news as they do not know the techniques to critically and correctly discern the validity of news. Most participants do not use websites that identify and check fake news and its sources. They agree that the phenomenon of misinformation is strong in their country and believe that inaccurate news or misinformation distorts reality and has a significant impact on society.

Keywords: Fake news, Disinformation, social media, Identifying Fake News Sources, Digital literacy.