In an era of democratic emergency, the UK’s epistemic security – the integrity of the information supply chains that sustain our democratic decision making – is at risk. Alongside the Epistemic Security Network (ESN), Demos is undertaking research and advocacy to safeguard our elections from these vulnerabilities.
Part of our advocacy focuses on the Representation of the People Bill, which is currently moving through Parliament. While the Government has previously acknowledged that “our own democracy is being threatened by misinformation”, the Bill does not set out measures to address electoral mis- and disinformation such as deepfakes of candidates and MPs. This is a missed opportunity: we are calling for amendments to ensure the Bill goes much further to safeguard our democratic processes from new and emergent threats.
Against this backdrop, this briefing is designed to help UK lawmakers, policymakers, regulators, and policy experts consider how best the UK can safeguard its elections. It summarises the challenges the UK faces when it comes to addressing false and misleading claims about elections using existing UK law. We focus on vulnerabilities associated with false statements, deepfakes, and related misleading AI-generated content about electoral candidates and MPs.
We make five key asks to address the current gaps that leave our electoral systems vulnerable:
- For Government: set out new legal guidance to clarify existing law
- For Ofcom and the Electoral Commission: create new codes to address election risks
- For political parties: establish shared principles on the use of AI in campaigning
- For Government & Parliament: Introduce further legislation to address risks from AI
- For civil society & academia: Conduct research to address the evidence gap