Sadiq Khan demands stronger action on social media ‘outrage economy’ | Social media
Sadiq Khan has called on ministers to take significantly stronger action against social media companies spreading disinformation after a study showed a rise in hostile accounts publishing lies about London’s crime rates and integration.
London’s mayor, who has also written to social media companies to demand change, said a lack of action could lead to more domestic terrorism by people who believe conspiracy theories they find online, responding to what he called the “outrage economy”.
Speaking at a disinformation summit in Cambridge on Thursday evening, Khan said it looked increasingly necessary for the central government to take firm action if social media companies continued to neglect the issue and media regulator Ofcom failed to implement change.
The research, compiled by an analysis unit within the Greater London Authority, showed a 150% to 200% increase in online narratives describing London as particularly dangerous in the past two years, and a 350% increase in content focusing on the supposed impact of immigration on the city.
“We’re right to expect big tech to do better, but we shouldn’t rely on it,” Khan said. “If platforms fail to act, the government must have the tools to do so. That is why I will continue to lobby 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 pace 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 they cause harm, they will continue to get away with it.”
The Labor mayor has long been the target of Islamophobic and other abusive social media posts, particularly when he clashed with Donald Trump. More recently this has evolved into numerous content describing London as, in Khan’s words in his speech, “a fallen city taken over by Islamist immigrants, where crime goes unpunished and basic decency has all but vanished”.
According to the new research, some of the misinformation came from US sources, while other posts were linked to Russian or Chinese state interests; AI technology is spreading lies in places like Vietnam, in some cases masquerading as legitimate local news sources.
This new economy of anger is “eroding the fundamental bonds of trust that hold our societies together” and must be tackled head on, Khan said.
He said: “The same people who attacked the capital are already targeting other cities around the world. And I think in a few years we’ll look back at London as the canary in the coal mine. But hopefully we’ll also see it as where the struggle began.”
Khan warned that undisputed lies could lead to violence and terrorism, citing the case of Kevin Rees, a 63-year-old retiree who became embroiled in online conspiracies after opposing the expansion of London’s ultra-low emissions zone.
Rees was jailed in January for blowing up a police camera with a homemade bomb; Police said this explosion could have killed someone.
Khan insisted that the new action was not intended to inhibit freedom of expression. “To anyone who wants to cynically delay, deflect or deny this crisis by turning it into a debate about our unfettered freedom to share, I say this: Tell that to aid workers being threatened by strangers on their doorstep after being exposed online, or to parents trying to reach their children as they are dragged into the darkest corners of the internet,” he said.
“Tell that to the Jewish and Muslim people who tell me they don’t feel safe walking into synagogues and mosques, or the school and hospital staff who face an endless tirade of harassment and abuse.”
