Apple CEO Tim Cook wants the tech industry to take action against the “fake news” that is polluting the web.

“There has to be a massive campaign. We have to think about every demographic,” Cook said in a rare interview.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Cook also said that “all of us tech companies need to create some tools that will help decrease the volume of fake news.”

Other CEOs of leading tech companies, such as Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, have spoken out about the issue in recent months. But Cook’s comments were much more frank.

According to the Telegraph, he said made-up stories and hoaxes are “killing people’s minds.”

And he called the plague of “fake news” “a big problem in much of the world.”

The term “fake news” was originally coined to describe online stories designed to mislead readers. Many times these stories are shared on Facebook and other social media sites to generate revenue for the creators. Other times the stories are essentially propaganda crafted for political purposes.

These types of stories received widespread attention before and after the US elections. Fictional stories with titles like “Pope Francis Shocks the World, Endorses Donald Trump for President” gained millions of clicks.

It can be very difficult for Internet users to distinguish between legitimate and fake news sources.

That’s where companies like Apple come in.

In the Telegraph interview, part of a multi-day trip through Europe, Cook said that “a lot of us are in the complaining category right now and haven’t figured out what to do.”

He urged both technological and intellectual solutions.

“We need the modern version of a public service announcement campaign. It can be done quickly if there is the will,” Cook told the newspaper.

What he described is music to the ears of media literacy advocates.

“It’s almost as if a new direction is needed for the modern child, for the digital child,” Cook said.

There are scattered efforts in some schools to teach media literacy, focusing on digital skills, but it is by no means universal.

When asked if Apple would commit to funding a public service announcement campaign, an Apple spokesperson said the company had no further comment on Cook’s interview.

The Apple CEO also suggested that tech companies can help eliminate false stories, although he added: “We must try to squeeze this out without stepping on freedom of expression and the press.”

Apple’s own Apple News app is credited with being a relatively reliable place to find information.

The company “reviews editors who join Apple News.” BuzzFeed noted last December.

And the app has a “report a concern feature where users can flag fake news or hate speech.”

Facebook recently began working with fact-checkers to test “warning labels” that appear when users share made-up stories.

Cook, in the newspaper interview, expressed optimism that the plague of “fake news” is a “short-term thing; I don’t think people want that at the end of the day.”

CNNMoney (New York) First published February 11, 2017: 8:00 pm ET