London mayor rages against social media machine, re-imagines an internet of ‘positivity’

SINGAPORE – Sadiq Khan is taking the good fight to social media these days.

In Singapore earlier this week to receive the 2026 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, the Mayor of London used the occasion to push back against online falsehoods about the British capital.

Khan is also a vocal supporter of Britain’s efforts to limit social media access for minors, joining dozens of countries globally that have argued that young people ought to be protected from unregulated online content that is being amplified by algorithms prioritising engagement on social media platforms.

“Unfortunately, the way the algorithms work on social media, they push messages from certain influencers to your stream even though... you may have asked for it once and then it’s repetition, repetition, repetition – and it worries me,” Khan told The Straits Times on June 16 on the sidelines of the World Cities Summit.

For Khan, the issue goes beyond online toxicity. He argues that engagement-driven algorithms are amplifying both misogynistic content aimed at young men and disinformation campaigns that distort perceptions of London, with real-world consequences for public safety, social cohesion and trust in institutions.

“We’ve seen a big increase in misogyny, discrimination, sexism across the UK, but also actually across the Western world,” said Khan, who was a human rights lawyer before entering politics with the Labour Party. “You’ve got an epidemic of violence against women and girls.”

Violence against women and girls in London has increased by nearly 40 per cent over the past decade that ended in 2025, according to Metropolitan Police data.

“When I was growing up, I had really good role models, mentors, my big brothers, my teachers, my youth workers. They were sort of my exemplars of what it is to be a man,” said Khan, who grew up in council housing in south London, the fifth of eight children in a working-class Pakistani immigrant family.

“Unfortunately now, it’s possible for a boy or a young man to be bombarded with messages about what it means to be a man, even though you’ve not invited them,” he said. “I worry that for too many young people, their teacher is social media, their teacher is the manosphere, and that’s bad for all of us.”

The 2025 hit Netflix drama Adolescence cast a spotlight on the online radicalisation of young British boys, illustrating how social media-driven algorithms can funnel vulnerable adolescents towards misogynistic content and unhealthy ideas of masculinity, despite the best efforts of parents and teachers.

“I’ve also said the government should be disallowing young people below the age of 16 to use social media to protect them – until social media companies can show it’s safe,” said the Mayor, who is the father of two adult daughters.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on June 15 moves to outlaw social media for young people under 16, while also curbing access to gaming and live-streaming platforms with the aim of limiting strangers from communicating with children.

While these measures are seen to go beyond Australia’s pioneering steps to limit social media access for young people, critics, including social media companies, have questioned the efficacy of curbing access – arguing that restrictions could push young people away from platforms that have introduced safeguards and towards less regulated alternatives.

Khan accepts that more needs to be done, pointing to his city’s “Ignore the noise, Trust your own voice” community campaign that seeks to equip young people with tools and trained adult supervision to cope with their emotional and developmental struggles.

For him, the dangers of engagement-driven algorithms extend far beyond youth culture. He argues that the same systems rewarding outrage and polarisation are also fuelling misleading narratives about London itself.

“I think social media companies have a responsibility,” he told ST, drawing comparisons with basic ethical rules that govern print and broadcast media.

If the three-term London Mayor had his way, this responsibility would also extend to Big Tech firms tweaking algorithms to discredit falsehoods that undermine confidence in one of the world’s major financial and tech hubs.

While crime remains a concern for many Londoners, Khan noted that online portrayals are often extreme and bear little resemblance to broader realities.

“What we’ve seen in the past 10 years is a massive improvement in London in terms of a whole host of issues,” Khan said, while also pointing to declines in the occurrences of personal theft, gun crime and burglary.

“But if you look at some social media platforms, you wouldn’t think of that,” he added. “And so what we’re seeing is a concerted effort, a concerted campaign by some to spread misinformation, disinformation and lies.”

Other than bot farms set up in other countries producing falsehoods for profit, Khan also noted a coordinated network of bad-faith actors linked to far-right groups and others that are pro-China, pro-Russia or aligned with the Make America Great Again movement in the US, which are amplifying misleading narratives about London.

Khan said these online falsehoods generally fall into three themes: that London is “taken over” by immigrants, that there is syariah law in London, and that London is some dystopian crime capital of the world.

“All three are completely untrue. They are fabricated,” said Khan, who became the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city when he first came into office in mid-2016.

The progressive Mayor of London has been engaged in a years-long feud with US President Donald Trump, which began after Khan spoke out against a US travel ban on people from certain Muslim countries in Trump’s first term.

While in Singapore, Khan unveiled plans for a global campaign launching in September to counter what he described as false narratives about London. The campaign involves rolling out billboards at prime locations in key cities such as Singapore and Tokyo – which the Mayor also visited after his stop in the Republic.

He cited a recent study by the Greater London Authority, showing a surge in online falsehoods being posted about the city. Such hostile narratives describing London as dangerous or in decline have increased between 150 per cent and 200 per cent over the past two years, according to the research.

“So listen: Rather than monetising ‘poison’, rather than having a division dividend, rather than having an outrage economy, why don’t you have your algorithms a different way?” Khan said.

“Let’s just reimagine the internet. Imagine what it could be like if instead of pushing negativity, you’re pushing positivity.”