New York, Feb 13 (IANS): Apple CEO Tim Cook has called for a crackdown on the epidemic of fake news and asked the governments to launch a public information campaign, media reports said.

According to a report in Telegraph, Cook said that fake news was 'killing people's minds' and necessitates a crackdown by the authorities and technology firms that would help providers of quality journalism and help drive out clickbait.

"The outcome of that is that truthful, reliable, non-sensational, deep news outlets will win," Cook was quoted as saying.

To educate the people about the threat posed by fabricated online stories, Cook pitched for a campaign akin to those that changed public attitude towards environment.

"We are going through this period of time right here where unfortunately some of the people that are winning are the people that spend their time trying to get the most clicks, not tell the most truth. It's killing people's minds in a way," Cook said.

He called on those tech firms which have not contributed much towards curbing the fake news, asking them to create tools that help diminish the volume of fake news.

"We must try to squeeze this without stepping on freedom of speech and of the press, but we must also help the reader. Too many of us are just in the complain category right now and have not figured out what to do," Cook added.