Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has expressed deep concern over the spread of false information online related to the Iran war. The Cabinet minister acknowledged that the government must examine what more can be done to tackle misinformation during crises.
The warning comes amid a surge in manipulated content on social media, including fabricated missile strikes and simulated drone attacks. Kendall told The Mirror: 'I'm deeply concerned about misinformation and disinformation being spread online. It's something that I know MPs on all sides of the house are concerned about too.'
Digital media expert Timothy Graham from Queensland University of Technology described the scale of misinformation as 'truly alarming'. He highlighted a range of synthetic content, from AI-generated videos of fake explosions to repurposed footage from other conflicts, all designed to be emotionally charged and shareable.
Graham criticised Elon Musk's X platform, stating that its design rewards high-engagement content, with fake posts reaching millions of views within hours. He noted that X's community notes system takes 15 to 24 hours to flag issues, while viral misinformation typically peaks within four hours. X recently announced it would ban users from monetising posts if they repeatedly share AI war videos without proper labelling.
Mark Frankel of Full Fact said the volume of distorted content related to the Iran war has been 'enormous'. He attributed the rise to increased accessibility of AI compared to the start of the Ukraine war, and noted that some false content is spread for profit, while foreign bot farms may also be involved to gain political advantage.
Labour MP Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, argued that social media companies should not be left to 'mark their own homework'. She called for independent access to internal data to properly assess the scale of misinformation.
