Sadiq Khan to spend millions fighting online disinformation about London
Key Points
- During his trade mission to Singapore, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a £7-million campaign to fight online disinformation about London.
- He noted the surge in harmful disinformation about the capital spreading around the world, much of which is created by international content farms.
- The Mayor will counter this disinformation with a new campaign in September that will showcase the virtues and opportunity of London around the world.
- During his trip, he also announced a new £100 million investment to create a 'Singapore-style' development arm for City Hall, giving the GLA control over land and a stake in a housebuilding project in east London.
During a four-day trip to Singapore, Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan announced a £7-million campaign to fight disinformation about the capital of the United Kingdom.
Khan, who is leading a trade mission on behalf of London in Singapore this week, said the funding would aim to promote London to international tourists and investors while also fighting harmful disinformation and false narratives about the city.
The Mayor said London was being assailed with a flood of disinformation on social media, including harmful narratives that aim to create division in the city’ population and damage confidence in the capital.
New research on social media users in Asia found that they are also being targeted by disinformation about London, with posts mirroring the templates and narratives of extreme right-wing posts in the UK.
Examples include fake US Embassy alerts that ‘London has fallen’ and fake AI images of millions of people attending the Unite The Kingdom rally in May 2026.
The research found that during some months, more than 15,000 posts were posted on X in Japanese with claims that London is lawless and under the influence of Islamic governance, and noted that verified X accounts are incentivised to create false posts for high levels of engagement to make money.
This follows research from earlier this year that found much of the disinformation about London stems from international content farms and extreme right-wing networks, with hostile narratives about the city increasing by up to 200% over the past two years.
The Mayor’s new fund will attempt to counter these harmful narratives, celebrating the attractions and culture of the capital. From September, a campaign will be launched that will showcase London as a world-class city at prime locations across key global markets.
“From offering the best attractions and cultural institutions for visitors to enjoy, to being an innovative and welcoming market for investors and tech companies, London truly is the greatest city in the world,” Khan said.
“However, we are facing a relentless and unprecedented attack of lies and hatred from those wanting to damage our capital’s standing and our hugely important tourism industry.”
“Disinformation about London has become a truly global scourge. It’s a money-making industry pushing lies about our capital and preying on people’s fears around the world, so we must fight back on a global scale,” he said.
Singapore-style housing development for London
Khan’s visit to Singapore is not just about touting the UK capital to investors, but also taking inspiration from the local government.
He announced a ‘Singapore-style’ housing development arm for London, which will see the Greater London Authority (GLA) invest £100 million to join the Silvertown Partnership and support the delivery of 7,000 new homes in east London.
Khan said this is a major step that will see City Hall becoming more of an active developer in housing projects, with the goal of maximising affordable housing delivery.
This approach borrows from the one taken by Singapore, where many new homes are built by the state, which owns the vast majority of the land in the city.
“This is a new era for housebuilding in London, with City Hall investing directly in new homes, unblocking stalled sites and speeding up development,” Khan said.
“However, housebuilding continues to be impacted by a perfect storm due to the disastrous legacy of the previous government, high interest rates, the rising cost of construction materials, the impact of the pandemic and Brexit and Building Safety Regulator delays,’ he said.
“That is why I will continue to make tackling our housing crisis a top priority as part of my ongoing work to build a better and fairer London for all.”
