With a backdrop of the UK Online Safety Bill which misses out on any significant provisions to explicitly target misinformation (unintentionally spreading news that is false) and disinformation (a deliberate attempt to proliferate false news for an agenda), and ahead of Rishi Sunak’s global AI governance summit next week, the fight against disinformation faces its next monumental challenge: generative AI.

Polis Analysis welcomes the passage of the Online Safety Bill through its final stages in Parliament. While the Bill does not go far enough in tackling online disinformation, the Bill at least represents a first legislative attempt by the Government to address the important issue of disinformation.

In Vuelio’s webinar ‘Why we need to take online misinformation and disinformation seriously’, Thomas Barton, our Founder and CEO, shared the problems we face as a society with fake news, predictions for how it could impact politics, business and health, and the vital role of PR practitioners in the fight for truth. You can read a summary of the webinar below.

‘I don’t think we’re in a post-truth world yet, but we need to act now to avoid that worst-case scenario,’ believes Polis Analysis CEO and Founder Thomas Barton.

Polis Analysis has been researching the issue of online misinformation and we have produced our own research findings into the attitudes of young people towards fake news. Below are the key Polis research findings based on surveys conducted with hundreds of young people in their twenties across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Polis Analysis team is happy to see that –  as part of the investments into safeguarding the UK from outside forces –  disinformation is seriously being seen as a legitimate threat to the security and stability of our society.

It is the long-term threats that we need to be most concerned about – every day, we are feeling the corrosive impacts of misinformation, but its effect on society and democracy will only fully show in the longer term.

Dear Member of Parliament, the Online Safety Bill presents a unique opportunity to tackle harmful content online and protect vulnerable people including children.

The widely debated Online Safety Bill might soon be enacted into UK law. However, it unfortunately overlooks one very covert, but crucial form of harmful online content: fake news.

Whilst all referring to different aspects of a broader issue, it is important to recognise the terms fake news, misinformation and disinformation are often used interchangeably.

Last week Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced to make maths lessons compulsory for all students up to 18. However, we believe that the Government is missing a huge opportunity for additional reform to the education curriculum.

We submitted evidence to the pre-legislative parliamentary scrutiny committee calling for a holistic approach to tackling online misinformation.

While misinformation – ‘fake news’ – is often seen as a generational problem, such a simplification is both dangerous and deceptive.