Ministers may try to curb spread of misinformation during social unrest | Liz Kendall
Liz Kendall said the government was considering new steps to stop the spread of misinformation during public crises and insisted she would not be “bullied” by Elon Musk’s X.
The technology secretary was speaking after rioting in Southampton over the police response to the fatal stabbing of Henry Nowak, a case Musk has repeatedly shared.
He said he was “very concerned” about the role of social media platforms in times of unrest, adding: “I definitely think we need to look at what more we can do, especially in moments of crisis and disorder and when public safety is important.”
Kendall highlighted a report by the Commons science, innovation and technology committee last year that called on Ofcom to introduce “crisis response protocols” to hold platforms accountable for misinformation.
The media regulator has consulted on the matter and further details are expected to be announced this month. The committee launched its investigation in the summer of 2024 in the wake of riots in Southport, where misinformation spread rapidly following the murder of three girls at a dance class.
The report found that “misleading and hateful messages are proliferating rapidly on the internet, amplified by social media companies’ recommendation algorithms.”
Kendall said the government is looking at “not only increasing reliable sources of information, which I think is extremely important and I think there’s probably more we can do here, but also, you know, getting people to reset their algorithms.”
He added: “I think a lot of people think they see these things coming towards them. And it should be a lot easier for people to say ‘let’s reset’, so I’m looking at that again.”
Committee chair Chi Onwurah said: “The government must do more to stop the spread of misinformation online. My committee’s report found that the Online Safety Act is woefully inadequate and riddled with regulatory gaps – but many of our recommendations on how to improve it have been rejected.”
“Since then, the secretary of state told my committee that the report was ‘excellent’. However, a year after it was published, no progress has been made on updating the OSA. Our current regulation is not fully up to date.”
On Thursday, Keir Starmer accused Musk of “interfering in our politics.” But Kendall said: “I understand why my colleagues don’t want to be there [on social media]But I didn’t want to be bullied on any platform.
“I will take the government’s message to some people who want to hear it, and certainly to those who don’t. Because I want to say that this government is for hope, not hate.”
Musk has repeatedly highlighted the Nowak case to his 240 million followers on X. One of the posts sharing comments by far-right MP Rupert Lowe simply read “ANGER”. It has been viewed more than 25 million times.
Kendall’s last post on X, about his visit to the University of Liverpool to highlight taxpayer support for innovation, was viewed 5,500 times and shared eight times.
Labor MP Jess Asato is taking legal action against Musk’s company xAI over degrading sexually explicit material created by the Grok AI tool that was spread across X earlier this year.
The Prime Minister praised Asato’s decision on Thursday and said he was “absolutely right” to take action.
Analysis last year by human rights group Amnesty claimed that X’s algorithms contributed to what it called “staggering growth of hatred” After the Southport murders.
The Online Safety Act, which was not in full force at the time of the 2024 riots, did not include adequate safeguards to contain misinformation, a House of Commons committee has said.
Kendall said: “I think from the initial idea and discussion to implementation [of the act] It was eight years. It’s been a long time. Too long. Too slow. This technology is developing very quickly. MPs vote on a finance bill every year. It is not beyond the intelligence of a man, or even a woman, to do things faster.”
