Highlights
- He accused social media giants of spreading a "dark blizzard of disinformation" about London
- Content portraying London as dangerous surged by up to 200 per cent in two years, the GLA found
- Khan warned online conspiracy theories were already fuelling real-world violence
- He called for a new regulatory body and tougher powers to fine social media firms
LONDON mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has accused social media companies of allowing a "dark blizzard of disinformation" to spread false claims about the city, and has called on the government to take significantly stronger action against platforms that fail to act.
Speaking at a disinformation summit in Cambridge on Thursday (9) evening, Sir Sadiq attacked what he called an "outrage economy" built around stoking division for profit, and warned that unchecked online falsehoods risked fuelling domestic terrorism.
Research published by an analysis unit within the Greater London Authority (GLA) revealed a rise of between 150 per cent and 200 per cent in online content portraying London as dangerous over the past two years, and a 350 per cent increase in posts focused on the supposed effects of migration on the city.
Content describing "London in decline" grew at roughly 200 per cent over that period, compared with just 7 per cent growth in social media posts about the capital generally, according to the GLA.
The research drew on data from platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and the Russian social network VK. Many of the accounts spreading such content were aligned with the far right, the Kremlin or Donald Trump's Maga movement in the US, the GLA said.
Some posts originated from AI-driven sources in countries such as Vietnam, in some cases masquerading as legitimate local news outlets.
Khan said the capital was being falsely depicted as "a fallen city overtaken by Islamist immigrants where crime goes unpunished, and basic decency has all but disappeared" — a characterisation he rejected, pointing out that murders in London have fallen to an 11-year low despite a growing population.
"Disinformation has become an industry," he argued. "An 'outrage economy' organised around a 'division dividend' which allows people to profit from poison. And today, the captains of the 'outrage economy' have London in their sights."
Khan warned that the spread of conspiracy theories online had already contributed to real-world violence. He cited the case of Kevin Rees, a 63-year-old retiree who was jailed in January after blowing up an ultra-low emission zone enforcement camera with a homemade bomb, a blast police said could have killed someone, having become drawn into online conspiracies.
The mayor, who has himself long been targeted by Islamophobic posts particularly during his clashes with Trump, called on ministers to create a new regulatory body and give the media regulator Ofcom stronger powers to punish social media firms financially.
"We're right to expect big tech to do better but we should not rely on it," he told the Cambridge summit, according to the Guardian. "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."
He added: "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 also pushed back against those who would frame tougher regulation as an attack on free speech, saying: "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."
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told the Financial Times it "constantly" strives to disrupt "co-ordinated behaviour" on its platforms, adding that it was reviewing the GLA's research and was in contact with the mayor's office. Telegram said that calls to violence "are forbidden and are removed whenever discovered."
Khan said London should be seen not only as a warning to other cities but as the place where a response began: "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."
