Sir Sadiq Khan has accused social media giants of tarnishing London\u2019s reputation by allowing a \u201cdark blizzard of disinformation\u201d to spread on their platforms.<\/p>\n
The Mayor of London<\/a> has claimed that sites such as X, Facebook and Instagram are fuelling lies about the capital online, specifically when it comes to crime and racial segregation.<\/p>\n Such disinformation is damaging the capital\u2019s standing as \u201cone of the most successful multicultural societies on Earth\u201d, he told the Cambridge Disinformation Summit on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cDisinformation has become an industry: an \u2018outrage economy\u2019 organised around a \u2018division dividend\u2019 which allows people to profit from poison,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd today, the captains of the \u2018outrage economy\u2019 have London in their sights.\u201d<\/p>\n His comments coincided with the release of a report by the Greater London Authority (GLA) which revealed a surge in social media posts containing falsehoods about London.<\/p>\n It found that \u201cLondon in decline\u201d content rose by up to 200pc in the past two years on social media, while posts about the capital in general grew by 7pc.<\/p>\n This was based on data from social media platforms such as X, Facebook and Instagram, as well as less popular apps such as Telegram and Russian social network VK.<\/p>\n Many of the posts were made by accounts aligned with the extreme Right, the Kremlin and Donald Trump\u2019s Maga movement in the US, the report said.<\/p>\n It warned that London was increasingly being targeted by false or misleading narratives about knife crime<\/a>, migration and violence against women.<\/p>\n Push for government action<\/p>\n Sir Sadiq has urged ministers to take much stronger action against social media sites to tackle the flood of disinformation online.<\/p>\n He even warned that inaction could fuel domestic terrorism by people swept up in online conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n \u201cIf platforms fail to act, the state must have the tools to make them,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ll continue lobbying the Government publicly and privately to take a much tougher approach.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mayor added: \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd 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\u2019ll keep on getting away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The GLA\u2019s report has been published against the backdrop of a growing row over London\u2019s reputation, with many critics highlighting a surge in petty crime such as phone theft and shoplifting<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, Sir Sadiq has repeatedly defended the capital\u2019s reputation by claiming murders in the city have fallen to an 11-year low despite an increase in its population.<\/p>\n