Sadiq Khan has called on ministers to take tough action against social media companies that spread misinformation after a study found a rise in hostile accounts posting lies about London’s crime rates and integration.
In a crackdown on what he called the “abusive economy”, the Mayor of London, who has also written to social media firms demanding change, said a lack of action could fuel more domestic terrorism by people who believe conspiracy theories found online.
Speaking at the Disinformation Summit in Cambridge on Thursday evening, Khan said stronger action from central government seemed necessary if social media companies continued to ignore the issue and media regulator Ofcom appeared unable to enforce change.
Research compiled by an analysis unit within the Greater London Authority showed that online stories portraying London as particularly dangerous have increased by 150% to 200% over the past two years, and content focusing on the estimated impact of migration on the city has increased by 350%.
“We are right to expect better performance from big tech, but we should not count on it,” Khan said. “If platforms fail to take action, the state must have the tools to make them do so. That’s why I will continue to lobby the government publicly and privately to take a tougher stance.
“We need a new central body with the agility and authority to protect our democracy from disinformation and deal with the scale and speed of this crisis. And we need to more aggressively enforce the rules we already have. Because unless regulators like Ofcom have the power to hit companies where they cause harm, they will continue to get away with it.”
The Labor mayor has long been under attack for Islamophobic and other offensive social media posts, particularly when he feuded with Donald Trump. More recently, this has expanded to include a large amount of material which, in the words of Khan’s speech, describes London as, “a fallen city taken over by Islamic immigrants, where there is no punishment for crime and basic decency has all but disappeared”.
While some misinformation comes from US sources, other posts are linked to Russian or Chinese state interests, according to new research The lies are spread with AI technology in places like Vietnam, in some cases pretending to be legitimate local news sources.
Khan said that this new aggressive economy is “eating away at the basic bonds of trust that hold our societies together” and has to be dealt with head-on.
He said: “The same people who attacked the capital have already begun targeting other cities around the world. And in a few years I think we’ll see London as the canary in the coal mine. But I hope we’ll also see it as the place where the fight started.”
Citing the case of 63-year-old retiree Kevin Rees, who became embroiled in online conspiracies after opposing the expansion of London’s ultra-low emissions zone, Khan warned that unchallenged lies could lead to violence and terrorism.
Rees was jailed in January for blowing up an enforcement camera with a homemade bomb, an explosion police say could have killed someone.
Khan stressed that the new crackdown was not a case of trying to suppress freedom of expression. “To anyone who tries to delay, distract or deny this crisis by turning it into a debate about our unfettered freedom to post, I say this: tell that to charity staff being intimidated by strangers on their doorstep after online docs, or parents struggling to reach their children as they traipse into the darkest corners of the internet,” he said.
“Tell this to the Jewish and Muslim people who tell me they do not feel safe going to synagogues and mosques, or that staff at schools and hospitals face endless harassment and abuse.”
