Misinformation on local Facebook groups has quadrupled ahead of the crucial Makerfield by-election, with Andy Burnham emerging as the key target of fake news.
Since campaigning kicked off last month, nearly one in six pieces of news in local groups was misinformation, reflecting a four-fold increase, according to new research from a think tank.
Social Market Foundation analysed thousands of posts within four groups shared before 14 May, when Josh Simons stepped aside to make way for Mr Burnham, as well as content pushed out after.
The rate of misinformation, which includes AI fakes, has risen to 5.7 per cent across all content ahead of Thursday’s contest - up from an average of 0.3 per cent.
Dr Rebecca Montacute, the group’s research director, told The Independent: “This is a very unusual by-election, where there's somebody so high profile…If Andy Burnham does end up winning the by-election, it could end up having such a huge impact on national politics if he then runs in a Labour leadership election.
“You can see why he would be a target of misinformation for that reason, because of the bigger national ramifications.”
The thinktank said all of the misinformation it identified was anti-Labour or pro-Reform in nature, except for one piece related to 5G conspiracies.
It found that conspiratorial stories relating to false claims about Mr Burnham’s intentional coverup of the grooming gangs scandal was reshared several times. Another post showed a fake, AI-generated Reform UK banner.
Ms Montacute said misinformation levels had increased during several elections in Britain, which was partly driven by pages pretending to be news organisations.
A report from earlier this month found that areas with limited local news outlets had nearly three times as much fake news on Facebook groups.
“It certainly is concerning, because we know that many people now go to local social media to be able to actually look at what is happening in their area,” she said. “Overall decline in local news means that for many people, this is the only source of that information.”
She said improving access to AI was also making it easier for people to create and share fake posts.
The thinktank analysed 1,800 posts from four groups and found that information was concentrated in two. One group went from hosting no misinformation to having 6.3 per cent of all posts classified as fake news, while another saw an increase from 0.8 per cent to 16.4 per cent.
While some people were challenging the false content, others appeared to believe it, the thinktank said.
The other two had no misinformation, which was due to the features of the group, SMF said.
It has called for social media platforms to increase moderation and limit the risk of misinformation spreading during elections.
Meta said it removes misinformation that could directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, and content likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes.
During February’s Gorton and Denton by-election, the rate of misinformation in four local Facebook groups was 26 times higher.
However, SMF said it was more politically balanced than what has been seen in Makerfield, where the Labour party and its candidate have been “heavily targeted”.
Full Fact has also identified examples of misinformation in Makerfield across platforms including Facebook and X.
Claire Milne told The Independent that the fact-checking charity had seen one instance of an AI-generated image of Mr Burnham meeting with a group of men who appear to be of Asian heritage, which was circulated alongside false claims he planned to make Makerfield “home for more asylum seekers”.
It also found an AI-generated image of an anti-Reform rally that was claimed to have taken place in Wigan, but did not.
“It can definitely cause confusion. It can definitely be detrimental both to voters and to democracy,” she said.
X has been contacted for comment.
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