Electoral Commission to warn voters of online disinformation amid foreign interference election fears

The Electoral Commission will publish advice on its website to warn voters about disinformation online amid fears of foreign interference during the election campaign, The Independent can reveal.

The body, which oversees elections in the UK, is working with partner agencies such as Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office to pull together resources to help people navigate digital campaign material during the election.

A new hub will be created on the Commission’s website and include information urging voters to think critically about information they may see or hear online, particularly on social media.

It comes after The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, warned about the potential threats of artificial intelligence (AI) during the election campaign.

A new study from the institute said there was little evidence that AI had directly impacted election results. There have, however, been early signs of the damage the technology had caused to democratic systems more broadly through a “polarised information space”.

This included confusion over whether AI-generated content is real, damaging trust in online sources; deepfakes inciting online hate against political figures, threatening their personal safety; and politicians exploiting AI disinformation for potential electoral gain.

The long-term consequences of these dynamics remain “uncertain,” the study said.

Two Labour politicians have over the past year been targetted by deep fake smears.

A fake audio of Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader - released on the first day of the party’s conference in October last year - purported to capture him lambasting his staff.

In February this year Sadiq Khan, recently reelected for a third term as the mayor of London, was targetted by fake audio purporting to capture him attacking Armistice Day remembrance events, which he said nearly led to “serious disorder”.

The audio used in both instances was reminiscent of deep fakes that went viral during elections in Slovakia last year, which were won by Robert Fico’s populist pro-Kremlin Smer-SSD party. One deep fake audio purported to capture one of Mr Fico’s opponents talking about rigging the election.

In January 2024 a deep fake published in the US purported to capture president Joe Biden discouraging voters from going to the polls during the primary elections.

Last week parliament’s National Security Strategy (Joint Committee) wrote to prime minister Rishi Sunak expressing a series of concerns regarding “threats and risks to our democracy” after he called a snap general election.

In its letter, the committee said that, in recent years, the UK had experienced a pattern of attempted foreign interference from countries such as “China, Russia, Iran and North Korea” and as such, “it is our view that the UK must be prepared for the possibility of “foreign interference” during the upcoming election campaign.

The committee said it had taken the decision to write and and publish the letter because “it is not clear if members of the public fully understand how these threats will manifest and what this means for the UK, its democracy and for them as individuals.”

It is understood that the EC’s update, to be published in the coming weeks, will not cover guidance on how to spot deep fake content, but will instead urge voters to think critically about information they see online.

This may include things like telling people to check the source of stories they see on social media, and whether the report has come from a credible source and featured on other outlets.

Other advice could include checking if the story is someone’s opinion or fact; whether the URL on the website is valid, eg if it ends with .com, .co.uk, .net, .gov, .org, .mil and .edu; and to check whether the story is recent or old.

An EC spokesperson said: “The Commission works to provide voters with accurate and factual information to help them participate in elections with confidence.

“As well as information on the voting process itself, we produce material to help inform voters about campaigning during an election.

“Ahead of the general, we are working with partner regulators to create a hub on our website that will support voters when they encounter both printed and digital campaign material.

“This will encourage voters to think critically about campaign material, and link to relevant media literacy resources.”