The government must protect our democracy from serious information incidents
4 min read
When a major public incident occurs, attention understandably turns to what is happening on the streets.
But another question demands increasingly urgent attention: what information were people seeing online?
The 2024 post-Southport riots and the Covid-19 pandemic showed how quickly false and misleading information can spread during periods of uncertainty and shape public understanding. The public disorder that followed the tragic death of Henry Nowak has prompted renewed debate about how the government, regulators and platforms should respond.
Full Fact first advocated for a cross-sector crisis response framework during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then momentum has built behind the need to address viral misinformation fuelling public crises. Last week, Ofcom published its response to a consultation on crisis response protocols under the Online Safety Act. Meanwhile, as part of its social cohesion strategy, the government recently announced a review of crisis powers in the Act “to ensure that they are fit for purpose”.
Ofcom’s measures are a step forward, requiring platforms to maintain crisis response protocols, deploy crisis response teams during major incidents, conduct post-crisis reviews, and establish dedicated communication channels with law enforcement. But they can only go so far within the current framework of the Online Safety Act. The Act needs to be updated to require the largest platforms, search engines and AI systems to identify and tackle systemic risks, including risks they pose to the UK’s democratic processes and public safety.
Recent polling commissioned by Full Fact highlights the scale of the challenge. Four in five UK adults are concerned about political misinformation - and 42 per cent of this group say that has negatively affected their confidence that elections are free and fair. Levels of trust were generally low in institutions as sources of reliable information. And 17 per cent of people would not put their greatest trust in any institution they were asked about during a major national emergency, including the police, local authorities or the media.
That creates a practical challenge for crisis communication. Effective response depends on reliable information reaching people through sources they trust, at speed, in order to counter the spread of false and misleading claims.
The UK has established systems for managing other forms of national risks. But as Full Fact’s latest report highlighted, responsibility for major information risks is fragmented across multiple bodies, with opaque systems and laws that have not kept pace with the rapidly evolving information environment.
The information environment is critical democratic and civic infrastructure; yet policy has not focused on the resilience of the wider system. Protecting it requires the government to move beyond piecemeal responses and recognise the scale of the changes driven by new technology. Full Fact’s report includes recommendations to strengthen the UK’s information environment during times of crisis.
First, Ofcom should require the largest platforms, search engines and generative AI systems to maintain more expansive information incident protocols, and crisis communication plans involving other stakeholders. Ofcom’s protocols move in this direction, but stop short of requiring the systematic preparedness major information risks demand.
Second, the government should establish a national information incident response framework. This would provide clear severity thresholds, escalation pathways, communication processes and coordination arrangements across government, regulators, platforms and other institutions.
Third, this framework should be overseen by a new Information Resilience Unit. The unit would provide a single, visible, enduring mechanism for cross-system coordination, preparedness and institutional learning on major information risks.
The government’s social cohesion strategy reflects a simple principle: resilience depends on more than responding after harm has occurred. This is critical in the information environment, where preparation, coordination and learning shape outcomes.
False and misleading information increasingly shapes how crises unfold and are understood. Major information incidents are a serious risk to the health of our democracy. Protecting our democracy from these risks requires laws, institutions and capabilities that can respond effectively.
Phoebe Arnold is Policy Lead at Full Fact and George Havenhand is Policy Manager at Full Fact
