<\/p>\n
Online disinformation campaigns, including Iranian bot farms promoting Scottish nationalism and biased algorithms depicting London as \u201can overwhelmingly dangerous\u201d city, are seeking to undermine British democracy, a senior Labour MP has warned.<\/p>\n
Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said online disinformation about the UK was being promoted by Donald Trump and other US and UK politicians, and Britain was \u201cconstantly suffering from disinformation campaigns from both state and non-state actors\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thornberry said it was time to challenge tech companies over \u201cthe threats that social media pose to our society\u201d. The committee has written to X, Meta and TikTok calling on them to give evidence<\/a> on the threat posed by foreign disinformation targeting the UK.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must start a proper dialogue with social media companies about the ways their platforms are being used to spread lies from abroad and undermine our democracy. And we need to do it urgently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Thornberry accused Reform UK, whose MPs have repeatedly described UK cities as crime-ridden and dangerous, of repeating false claims that were then amplified, while biased algorithms promoted \u201cstrife and far-right messages\u201d. Reform politicians were \u201craking in tens of thousands of pounds from X\u201d and rewarding sites that sowed anger and spread disinformation, she said.<\/p>\n Last week the Reform mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham said London was \u201cno longer safe\u201d<\/a>, while the party leader, Nigel Farage, said London was \u201cin the grip of a crime wave\u201d, despite a fall in multiple crime types<\/a> including murder. Trump has claimed the UK capital has \u201cno-go zones\u201d and that its mayor, Sadiq Khan, is moving the city \u201ctowards sharia law\u201d.<\/p>\n