Labour to widen misinformation laws in bid to take on Elon Musk

Ministers are looking at beefing up laws around the spread of disinformation on social media platforms amid an ongoing row with row with X/Twitter owner Elon Musk, The i Paper can reveal.

Tech billionaire Musk has launched a torrent of accusations against the Government in recent days over its handling of historic child sexual abuse claims, which has seen him call for the release of jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon.

The hostile messages prompted Sir Keir Starmer to warn that a “line had been crossed” over the grooming gang row, adding that “lies and misinformation” were being shared online in relation to the scandal.

It comes as Whitehall sources told The i Paper that the Government was looking into strengthening the provisions contained in the Online Safety Act when it comes to the sharing of misinformation on social media platforms.

Under British law, as it stands, social media companies must take action against disinformation where it constitutes illegal content or where content is deemed harmful to children.

Campaigners have called for the Act to be strengthened to cover content that may be deemed harmful to adults as well as children.

However, with Musk’s deep pockets and his attacks on the UK Government growing ever bolder, it remains unclear how effective a strengthening of the laws on misinformation and a crackdown on its spread on platforms like X would be.

Last year, a total ban on the site in Brazil was soon lifted after X complied with a Brazilian judge’s demands and paid millions of pounds in fines.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle wrote to the online watchdog Ofcom in the wake of the summer riots, raising his concerns over the ease by which misinformation was able to spread online and asked if Ofcom was looking at other “targeted measures” ahead of its next iteration of the illegal harms code of practice.

In response, Ofcom’s chief executive Melanie Dawes said there was a risk that changes to social media algorithms could “increase users’ exposure to illegal material” by amplifying certain content.

Dawes added that Ofcom was considering whether it was necessary to bring in new potential measures around live streaming functionalities and recommender systems on social media sites.

Under the watchdog’s new codes of practice, platforms that fail to take action to remove illegal content and material that is deemed harmful to children will face a series of sanctions, including fines worth 10 per cent of their global turnover, senior managers could face criminal charges and the sites themselves could be blocked in the UK.

Long-term online safety campaigner and crossbench peer Baroness Kidron said the Government needed to be tougher on the likes of Musk.

“What Musk is doing is not free speech, it is a businessman competing for market share in the attention economy getting attention,” she told The i Paper.

“The fact that he is willing to do it on the back of abused children and in the name of far right in Germany is a gamification of other people’s lives lies somewhere between appalling and unforgivable.”