There'll Be More Southport-Style Riots If Government Doesn't Tackle Misinformation, Committee Warns
MPs have warned that the government appears "complacent" about the spread of misinformation (Alamy)
4 min read
MPs have warned that the government appears "complacent" about the spread of misinformation, and "it is only a matter of time" until fake news online leads to civil unrest like the riots that followed the Southport attack.
Three young girls were murdered, and ten others were injured, when Axel Rudakubana attacked a dance class in Southport in July 2024.
False information about Rudakubana, like that he was an illegal migrant, spread online, followed by riots in Merseyside and nationwide. Jonathan Hall KC, the UK's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said earlier this year that "dangerous fictions" about the killer helped spark the civil unrest.
In July, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee published a report warning that the Online Safety Act, which came into force earlier this year, was not designed to tackle misinformation and urged the government to go further to regulate social media companies and disincentivise the viral spread of false content.
The committee also backed calls for the legislation to be strengthened to cover legal misinformation.
On Friday, the government responded to the cross-party committee report. While it agreed with many of the report’s conclusions, it rejected several of the committee’s recommendations on how to tackle the problem, including passing legislation covering generative artificial intelligence platforms.
The government also rejected immediate recommendations on how to address the business models of social media companies that encourage the algorithmic spread of engaging content, regardless of its level of harm.
Chi Onwurah, committee chair and Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, said she disappointed with the response, questioning why, if both Ofcom and the government had agreed with most of the committee's conclusions, they had stopped short of accepting the recommendations.
Onwurah said she was particularly disappointed about "a lack of commitment to acting on AI regulation and digital advertising."
Earlier this month, Labour MP Matt Western told The House that the latest iterations of generative AI videos are “broadcast quality” and served as "an absolute wake-up call about how this needs addressing".
In its response to the committee, the government argued that the Online Safety Act already covers generative AI. But Onwurah said the committee "is not convinced by this argument", adding "the technology is developing at such a fast rate that more will clearly need to be done to tackle its effects on online misinformation".
While giving evidence to the committee, Ofcom said that the legal position of generative AI was “not entirely clear”.
"Additionally, without addressing the advertising-based business models that incentivise social media companies to algorithmically amplify misinformation, how can we stop it?" Onwurah added.
The problems created by the spread of misinformation have once again come to the fore in recent weeks, with Technology Secretary Liz Kendall telling MPs on Monday that there had been "a lot of misinformation" and "scaremongering" spread about the government policy of introducing digital ID.
One widely shared conspiracy theory about the scheme was recently repeated on the BBC’s Have I Got News For You, for which the BBC later apologised after it was spotted by PoliticsHome.
Some Labour MPs feel digital ID is an example of ministers not doing enough to combat the spread of fake information. Labour backbencher Noah Law told PoliticsHome that the government has been “a bit passive when it comes to misinformation”.
Responding to the government on Friday, Onwurah said: “The government urgently needs to plug gaps in the Online Safety Act, but instead seems complacent about harms from the viral spread of legal but harmful misinformation.
"Public safety is at risk, and it is only a matter of time until the misinformation-fuelled 2024 summer riots are repeated.”
In an interview with PoliticsHome this week, the minister for AI Kanishka Narayan said that the government will continue to look at Ofcom’s “realm of enforcement” as it starts to enforce online safety legislation.
Azzurra Moores, Policy Lead at Full Fact, said the government's decision to reject the committee's recommendations "is leaving the public exposed to fast-moving false, harmful, and misleading information online", adding that this is a "missed opportunity" to strengthen defences.
"Without better legal standing for misinformation and tangible, government-led action to ensure platforms step up to the threat and that Ofcom is fit for its duties, the public remains staggeringly vulnerable to future information crises that begin online but spill out into the streets.
"The 'business-as-usual' tone of the government's response to frank and urgent calls to action risks putting them on the wrong side of history. The terrible incidents in Southport should have inspired action - we can't afford to wait for another crisis to finally address this defining challenge of our times."
