UK politics ‘constantly suffering’ from online disinformation, says Labour MP

Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, says urgent dialogue is needed with social media companies. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

Online disinformation campaigns, including Iranian bot farms promoting Scottish nationalism and biased algorithms depicting London as “an overwhelmingly dangerous” city, are seeking to undermine British democracy, a senior Labour MP has warned.

Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said online disinformation about the UK was being promoted by Donald Trump and other US and UK politicians, and Britain was “constantly suffering from disinformation campaigns from both state and non-state actors”.