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Mayor's £7m plan tackles online 'lies' about London

Getty Images A close up of a group of people using mobile phones - their hands and the phones are visible. Getty Images
The campaign will target social media users Europe, Asia and the US

The mayor of London is to spend £7m on a campaign to showcase London to the world and tackle online disinformation.

Sir Sadiq Khan said the city had been subjected to a "relentless and unprecedented attack of lies and hatred" on social media.

A report published by the Greater London Authority (GLA) earlier this year found a nearly 200% increase in social media posts in the past two years portraying London as dangerous or in decline.

Susan Hall, the leader of the City Hall Tories, said that Sir Sadiq "should spend more time trying to fix things as opposed to saying 'la la la la la', I'm not listening, everything's fine'."

In February, BBC News reported on a wave of AI-generated videos falsely depicting a "taxpayer-funded water park" in Croydon, part of the wider trend portraying London as a city in decline.

A composite image showing stills from three TikTok videos, the first on the left showing "Croydon Water Park" with a red dinghy entering the murky water from a grey water slide, while a crowd of young men in dark clothing gather behind with tower blocks in the distance. The second, "Croydon Arcade Machine", shows a young black man wearing a balaclava and a padded jacket operating an arcade claw machine to try and grab one of several large knives. The third, another "Croydon Water Slide", shows a line of young men in black hoods sliding into the water of a rusty pool, with litter and cans bobbing around.
One TikTok page's fake videos portray grimy Croydon waterparks

The new City Hall-funded campaign is due to launch in September and and will target audiences across Europe, the United States and Asia.

It aims to promote the capital by celebrating London's "rich heritage, world-class experiences, culture, creativity and role as a centre for innovation and trade".

Sir Sadiq said: "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.

"That's why we're creating this major new campaign to challenge these false narratives and demonstrate once again why there's no better place in the world than London."

Reform UK's candidate for mayor of London, Laila Cunningham, said: "If the mayor of London wants to encourage more tourism, he should deal with the crime he has allowed to spiral out of control instead of suggesting that victims of crime are liars."

The GLA report published in March found that social media users were being targeted by "disinformation" about London.

Between March 2024 and March 2026, online activity describing the capital as a dangerous city in decline increased by between 150 and 200%, while migration-related narratives referencing London surged by more than 350%, the report said.

It found that in some months, more than 15,000 posts have been posted on X in Japanese with claims that the capital is lawless and under the influence of Islamic governance.

The report said that one account used AI imagery to falsely claim that millions of people attended the 2025 Unite The Kingdom rally. The attendance was estimated to be around 150,000.

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