Facebook said on Friday it will remove the 'Trending' topics feature that compiles popular news from its social network, as it seeks to ensure users see news from trustworthy and quality sources.

The change is coming next week and comes at a time when the world's largest social network is combating the spread of fake news on its platform.

Trending accounted for less than 1.5 percent of clicks to news publishers on average, Facebook said here in a blog post, adding the company was testing ways to display news including a 'breaking news label' and 'today in', a dedicated section for local news.

Facebook had in the past few years made changes to the Trending topics feature to avoid ideological or political bias.