Sadiq Khan calls for crackdown on social media disinformation
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called for stronger action against the spread of social media disinformation, after research showed a rise in online falsehoods about the city's crime rates and integration.
Sadiq Khan has called for stronger action against social media companies responsible for spreading disinformation.
The Mayor of London has called for ministers to tackle the "outrage economy" after research showed a rise in hostile accounts posting false claims about the city's crime rates and integration.
Data compiled by an analysis unit within the Greater London Authority shows an increase of between 150 per cent and 200 per cent in online narratives describing London as particularly dangerous over the past two years, as well as a 350 per cent rise in content focused on the supposed impact of migration on the UK capital.
Khan feels that robust action from the central government is required if social media firms continue to ignore the matter.
Speaking at a disinformation summit in Cambridge on Thursday (09.04.26), the mayor said: "We’re right to expect big tech to do better but we should not rely on it.
"If platforms fail to act, the state must have the tools to make them. That’s why I’ll continue lobbying the government publicly and privately to take a much tougher approach.
"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 more aggressive enforcement of the rules we already have. Because unless regulators like Ofcom have the power to hit companies where it hurts, they’ll keep on getting away with it."
Khan feels that social media falsehoods contribute to an "outrage economy" that is "eating away at the basic bonds of trust that hold our societies together" and need to be tackled head-on.
The politician said: "The same people attacking the capital have already started targeting other cities around the world. And in a few years’ time I think we’ll look back on London as the canary in the coalmine. But I hope we’ll also see it as the place where the fightback began."
Khan is adamant that taking action was not an example of those in power trying to suppress free speech.
He said: "To anyone who cynically seeks to delay, deflect or deny by turning this crisis into a debate about our unfettered freedom to post, I say this: tell that [to] charity staff being threatened by strangers at their door after they were doxed online, or the parents struggling to reach their children as they’re dragged ever deeper into the darkest corners of the internet.
"Tell that to the Jewish and Muslim people who tell me they don’t feel safe walking to synagogues and mosques, or the staff in schools and hospitals facing an endless tirade of harassment and abuse."
