The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced plans for a taxpayer-funded campaign to combat online ‘disinformation’ about the capital. The initiative, due to launch in September, will target audiences across Europe, North America and Asia in an effort to showcase London’s culture, innovation and economic strengths.
The justification is straightforward enough. AI-generated videos depicting dystopian scenes in Croydon have gone viral. False or exaggerated claims about crime, migration and ‘Islamic governance’ circulate widely online. The Greater London Authority says hostile narratives about London have increased dramatically over the past two years.
Khan isn’t imagining things. Artificial intelligence has lowered the cost of producing highly deceptive falsehoods to virtually zero – all you need is a smartphone and internet connection. Social media platforms reward outrage over accuracy, leading to a need to be cautious when seeing posts online.
But this doesn’t mean that it is the job of City Hall to spend millions of pounds policing perceptions. Londoners elect a mayor to run transport, improve policing, oversee housing and drive economic growth. They do not elect a mayor to manage the city’s reputation. And if Khan were doing those things well, one wonders how much reputation management he’d actually have to do.
