He United Kingdom is putting pressure on technology companies so that they act more quickly and forcefully against the spread of false information on social networks. Responsible for Goal, X and TikTok They appeared this Monday before the foreign affairs committee of the House of Commons to explain what mechanisms they are putting in place to identify disinformation campaigns in the country and to combat coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB), a practice used by malicious actors to destabilize Western democratic systems.
The members of the commission have expressed their concern about the difficulties of technological platforms for identify and stop the spread of this type of content on social networks. An example of this is the online disinformation campaign known as ‘Doppelganger’which has invaded the main digital platforms with false publications, falsified documents and ‘deepfakes’ about Ukraine at least from 2022. The companies behind this campaign, launched by Russia to justify its invasion, have been sanctioned by the British Government.
Those responsible for Meta, X and TikTok have warned about attempts by countries such as Russia, Iran or China to launch coordinated disinformation campaigns during electoral processes in Europe and the United States, but they have assured that they are taking the necessary measures to reduce the risk they pose. Part of these measures include the deactivation of suspicious accounts, the identification of organizations and people behind these accounts and the public dissemination of the activities of these networks through periodic reports to alert users.
Preventive removal
TikTok’s public policy director in northern Europe, Ali Lawhas noted that its platform reviews all posts through automated moderation processes and refers them to an independent fact-checking team in case questions arise about the compliance with your regulations. “From a disinformation point of view, we eliminated 99% [de publicaciones] proactively. We eliminate 90% with zero visits and 95% within two hours. This does not mean that we have achieved what we set out to do, but the process of content moderation is designed to address misinformation at its source,” he said.
Even so, members of the British Parliament have shown their skepticism at the lack of mechanisms to effectively stop the spread of fake news and their concern about the impact it may have for the public. national security. The president of the commission, Emily Thornberry, has given as an example the nearly 23 million views which, according to the BBC, had the false posts launched by Russia on TikTok during the campaign for the elections in Moldova in 2025. “Our concern is that if they do it in Moldaviathey can do it in the UK too,” Thornberry said.
Control failures
British parliamentarians have also brought to the table the failures that digital platforms made when it came to detecting and eliminating the publication of false information in other relevant episodes that occurred in the United Kingdom, including the murder of three girls in Southport in the summer of 2024. The spread of a hoax on social media about the identity of the perpetrator of the attacks – who was falsely identified as a Muslim asylum seeker – sparked a wave of violent riots in the country and put the safety of thousands of immigrants at risk.
Another of the concerns expressed by the parliamentary commission has been the spread of sexual ‘deepfakes’ of women and girls generated with Grokthe artificial intelligence of X. A matter that led the regulatory body Ofcom to initiate an investigation against the company Elon Musk under the threat of imposing a fine of up to 10% of your income if it refused to end this practice. “We have implemented a series of measures to ensure that this incident does not happen again,” said the director for the Americas of Global Government Affairs, Wilfredo Fernandez. “We agree that It was unacceptable. and since it occurred, I have been working diligently to ensure systems have stronger security measures in place so this does not happen again.”
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