Misinformation is nearly three times more common in UK areas with little or no recognised local journalism, according to a Social Market Foundation study that found local online groups are now carrying much of the burden once borne by reporters. The analysis, released as election-related falsehoods rose, paints a bleak picture of how quickly bad information can take hold where there is no dedicated local newsroom to check it.
The findings land now because the study tracked a surge in misleading posts in the run-up to polling day. Across more than 125,000 social media posts in local Facebook groups, X searches and Nextdoor communities, misinformation climbed from 8.2% of all news posts to 12.9%, a rise of 56%. The report also found that immigration and Islamophobia were the most common subjects, showing how easily national flashpoints can spill into local spaces.
Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP and chair of the committee that examined the issue, said the findings were deeply concerning. She is not looking at a small niche problem. More than 4.4 million people in the UK now live in a news desert, and the study suggests those communities are more exposed to misleading claims precisely because there is less local reporting to challenge them.
The numbers from south-east Manchester show how sharply that can play out in one place. During the recent byelection in Gorton and Denton, misinformation was detected in three out of four local groups, and 6.5% of news-related posts in those groups amounted to misinformation. The study described local online groups as the silent killer of trust in Britain, a phrase that fits the way they can be read by far more people than local outlets even when some are run by administrators with no legal experience or who openly back a party.
The analysis also found fake local authority communications, AI-generated content and misleading claims that councils were behaving corruptly. A fifth of all fake news posts in Facebook groups dealt with local issues such as planning decisions, transport, local services and council politics, which is where falsehoods can do the most immediate damage because they shape how people judge the place they live in and the people who represent them.
What happens next is a test of whether ministers take the warning seriously. The committee had already made recommendations on tackling online misinformation, but its response has not been set out, and the study makes clear that delay leaves millions of people relying on platforms that can amplify rumour faster than local journalism can correct it.
