We are all getting more of our news and information from social media, and while we know that that is an ecosystem in which there is much unsubstantiated opinion and even disinformation, we are attuned to give most of what we see and read the benefit of the doubt. Moreover, such is the sophistication of the presentation these days, that the content can seem very persuasive. Algorithms then serve to feed us more of the same reinforcing whatever understanding we have reached.
Hans Rosling, in his excellent 2018 book Factfulness demonstrated that humans have a remarkably poor understanding of the world around them, even those in international leadership positions, and that that misinformed understanding comes from an innate conditioning to believe the most dramatic and doom-laden accounts. Today social media risks taking that natural inclination and turbo charging it. Rosling encourages us to fact check rigorously, to see the world as it is, not as we fear it to be.
I have found myself recently feeling the need to return to this encouragement from Rosling to investigate the factual basis of things. In particular, I have found it disconcerting to see things that I know not to be wholly true taking hold with people. For example, one can see a rise in those questioning well-established science such as the efficacy of vaccines or whether our planet is spherical. Closer to home, it is a real concern for me, as the British Ambassador, that a number of questionable or exaggerated claims about the UK are also starting to stick with people.
I hear people say that the UK’s economy is faring worse than others. In fact, the City of London remains the world’s leading financial centre, the UK was ranked the joint top (with India) investment destination by Deloitte’s 2025 CFO study, and the UK grew the fastest of all the G7 economies in the first half of 2025.
I hear people claim that London is no longer safe. In fact, the data shows that it is safer now than it has been in a generation with violent crime and homicides well below equivalent levels for US and European cities and double digit drops in robbery, theft and burglary.
I hear about millions of illegal migrants. In fact, the total number of illegal migrants coming to the UK in 2024 was 43,630, just 0.06 per cent of the UK population.
I hear that green and renewable industries are a drag on the UK economy when, in fact, the UK’s net zero sector grew by over 10pc between 2023 and 2024 and the sector has seen a 34.6pc increase in jobs created since 2015.
One also finds widespread misunderstanding of regional and global events. I am struck, for example, how many people of all nationalities seem confused about who started the war on Ukraine, when the invasion of one sovereign state by another was so well documented.
The collective weight of misinformation gathering on these and many other important questions does harm. It affects business, investment, tourism and education decisions. It has led me to conclude that my job, as a diplomat, must fundamentally change. Where before we liked to let reason and our activity speak for itself, now we must do more to ensure that people have the correct record and with the supporting facts.
What then can be done? One sees a growing debate about how we should ensure that these new powerful technologies fulfil their promise without exposing us to harm and misunderstanding. There are, for example, significant movements now seeking to limit exposure to social media for our children. So too there are education programmes and I commend the partnership between the Bahrain National Cyber Security Centre and British company OSP Cyber Academy educating young people on information security and cyber threats.
We need to strike the balance between providing access to opinion, information, fact and truth while moderating misleading and malign sources. This is not a new issue, the mainstream media and commentariat have dealt with this for decades using regulation and professional codes of conduct. The answer is unlikely to be a closure of space for debate, but rather these new technologies need the application of those same professional codes and management.
This will need a global solution but, as that materialises, I believe two things particularly matter:
First, and in each place, good journalism that discerns what should and shouldn’t be published on the basis of fact and the public interest.
Second, that we all get far better at fact-checking and please, do not believe everything you read about the UK without researching the facts! The UK remains, like Bahrain, one of the most welcoming, diverting and enriching countries and I am thankful every day that so many Bahrainis agree.
UK Ambassador to Bahrain, Alastair Long
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