I parlamentari britannici avvertono che le rivolte del 2024 si ripeteranno se non si affronterà la disinformazione online

Failures to properly tackle online misinformation mean it is “only a matter of time” before viral content triggers a repeat of the 2024 summer riots, MPs have warned.

Chi Onwurah, the chair of the Commons science and technology select committee, said ministers seemed complacent about the threat and this was putting the public at risk

The committee said it was disappointed in the government’s response to its recent report warning social media companies’ business models contributed to disturbances after the Southport murders.

Replying to the committee’s findings, the government rejected a call for legislation tackling generative artificial intelligence platforms and said it would not intervene directly in the online advertising market, which MPs claimed helped incentivise the creation of harmful material after the attack.

Onwurah said the government agreed with most of its conclusions but had stopped short of backing its recommendations for action.

Accusing ministers of putting the public at risk, Onwurah said: “The government urgently needs to plug gaps in the Online Safety Act (OSA), but instead seems complacent about harms from the viral spread of legal but harmful misinformation. Public safety is at risk, and it is only a matter of time until the misinformation-fuelled 2024 summer riots are repeated.”

MPs said in a report titled Social Media, Misinformation and Harmful Algorithms that inflammatory AI images had been posted on social media platforms in the wake of the stabbings, in which three children died, and warned AI tools have made it easier to create hateful, harmful or deceptive content.

In its response published by the committee on Friday, the government said new legislation was not needed and that AI-generated content is already covered by the OSA, which regulates material on social media platforms. It said introducing further laws would hamper its implementation.

However, the committee pointed to testimony from Ofcom in which an official at the communications regulator said AI chatbots are not 100% captured by the act and further consultation with the tech industry was needed.

labour have already censored the internet massively, what more could they do apart from going fully mad and censor the lot

I wonder if there was anything else that happened to trigger the 2024 riots

It’s misinformation that a migrant at the Epping hotel sexually assaulted a 14 year old, is it?

It is objectively a good thing to tackle misinformation, and you have to question why people wouldn’t want to.

Maybe it would be a good idea to bring back the law that required the media to publish stories based on truth rather than opinion. And stories found untruthful, punished.

Considering the major news sites also produce misinformation in order to get engagement, I’m going to go ahead and say it’s not gonna happen.

The only way to combat misinformation is through education and critical thinking skills. It’s not that hard to find what the truth is then you can make up your own mind based on your beliefs, not someone else’s

> misinformation

lol. Yes, misinformation is the source of all our woes