The biggest threat to the modern world is not climate change, artificial intelligence, geopolitical conflict, religious extremism or global pandemics. Every aforementioned menace is eclipsed by social media. It spreads misinformation, exacerbates political division, wrecks reputations, causes addiction, destroys mental health and threatens lives. False stories and emotional outrage move faster than truth because algorithms prioritise social engagement.
Ceuta border surge as a warning
Last week’s mass border surge on Ceuta saw 60,000 predominantly young male Moroccans swim, wade, crawl and stampede into the Spanish enclave in North Africa, terrorising citizens and causing widespread concern. Some 70 lost their lives. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
What galvanised them to invade? Misinformation online, erroneous interpretations of administrative and legal information, and propaganda disseminated by human trafficking networks.
Regulatory efforts and limitations
The EU’s Digital Services Act, the UK’s Online Safety Act and similar laws in Australia and elsewhere have gone some distance towards restricting youth access, penalising tech companies, passing online safety rules and enforcing the removal of illegal content. In the US, broad censorship is blocked by the First Amendment. While countries such as North Korea, China and Iran operate extreme restrictions, platform bans in Russia or Turkey are easily bypassed using VPNs.
Call for political action
Andy Burnham should be burning midnight oil on this. The immigration crisis hastened the demise of just about every Labour leader over the past quarter-century. He must stop fannying about over bus fares and VAT on utilities and apply major muscle to the most serious task in hand, or start looking for another job.
The insane scenes in Ceuta were a portent. Not only is Spain panicking that it will happen again, with worse consequences, but so are we. Migrants can’t exactly walk the Channel, it’s true. But traffickers remain emboldened by the hazard of human safety. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea demands the rescue of any person in peril on both territorial and international waters. Many armchair analysts online are now demanding that we turn the overloaded dinghies around and leave migrants to drown, which is unthinkable.
Asylum system in disarray
Our asylum structure is in disarray. Our welfare system is in meltdown and requires urgent reform. Government spokespeople like to kid us that numbers are down, but last week the largest number of migrants in a single day this year stumbled up British beaches. Since 2018, more than 200,000 have arrived.
The Prime Minister has yet to tell us what he thinks about it. He should. Now it has been revealed that the British taxpayer is effectively paying more than £8,000 per migrant prevented from crossing the Channel under our border agreement with France, it is wake-up time.
