Hey everyone, there’s some new guidelines for AI content you need to know about.
But I’m really busy, Dan.
I know. That’s why I’ve blogged this walk through for you.
But I hate AI.
I know. That’s why I’ve blogged this walk through for you even though I know only a small number will read this compared to posts I write about tactics. But those small number by staying up to speed will likely still have a job in years to come. But I’m not going to persuade you.
Go on then.
It’s from the EU. Remember them? They’ve published an AI Act. They’ve published some guidance on Article 50 which requires which requires people to mark some of the content which has been made with the help of AI. They’ve even written it in English.
The EU? Haven’t you heard? We’ve taken back control. We’re not in the EU anymore.
I know. But this applies if that content has been aimed at people in the EU.
Cool. I don’t need to bother, then.
That’s fine. But actually, what they are setting out is a useful yardstick to maintain confidence in your content at a time when people are getting increasingly restless about AI. In 2023, The Alan Turing Institute ran some data that showed 72 per cent were in favour of strong Government regulation of AI.
They do. But rather than one set they’ve left it to different watchdogs. So, if AI is used to create an ad that looks misleading the Advertising Standards Agency can use existing powers.
Alright then, what does this EU guidance say?
Basically…
If it’s deepfake it needs to be marked as AI.
If text has been made by AI but has been edited by a human it doesn’t need to be.
If AI has been used for things like noise-cancelling or subtitle creation this is ‘standard editing’ and doesn’t have top be marked as AI.
If you are using a tool, make sure it complies with the EU AI act by adding machine-readable markers that allow for detection. No, the EU haven’t published a list yet. Which is a bit annoying.
If you are getting your head around AI this guidance is really sensible.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
There’s been a slew of posts about new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s use of social media as a communications channel.
There’s been some interesting reads. He’s recruiting a dozen more social media posts for the 10 Downing Street operation. He may or may not be the UK’s first social media Prime Minister.
Let’s been honest, two weeks in and he’s on his honeymoon period.
But there’s enough there to intrigue me into making me spend some time evaluating his content.
I’m anticipating the training request ‘we’ve been asked to make our senior people look as good as Andy Burnham.’
How politicians used to communicate
Growing up, the set-piece TV interview was the way politicians would communicate their thoughts and policy detail. Journalist Rob Burley’s excellent ‘Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying To Me’ traces the rise and fall of the 40-minute Sunday morning political interview.
The trouble is nobody outside Westminster wants to watch.
So, with more than 80 per cent of the UK population having a social media account it makes sense to be good these channels as well as media relations, strategy, policy, public speaking and all the other things a successful Prime Minister needs. For a Labour politician facing a hostile media it also makes sense.
Were I still in regional media, I’d be asking why local news journalists don’t get to interview the Prime Minister so much when he visits town. And yes, other politicians are available.
So a post of three parts. First some data then some learning points and then some content.
PART 1: Some data on Andy Burnham’s social media content
So, how are the numbers? I’ve taken a look at Andy Burnham’s own Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. I’ve not looked at the 10 Downing Street accounts.
At first, I looked at Instagram mapped content there. But exploring TikTok and Facebook it was clear there was content unique to those platforms. How come I haven’t looked at X? Hours in the day, mainly. X is still important to politicians and journalists but less so for the wider public. A quick glance over there shows much less engagement but strong reach. So, around 13,000 engagements on X for the two week and here’s what we’ve achieved listicle. That’s about half of the performance of the same content on Instagram.
I looked at engagements per post as a metric. Why? Because likes, comments and shares are a marker of people literally engaging of what is being said. They haven’t simply scrolled past. When people engage it also sends a signal to the algorithm to show it to more people. Not only that but they are more likely to be shown future content.
Instagram is his largest channel with 660,000 followers outranking Facebook (610,000) and TikTok (465,000). But follower numbers are less important. All of the platforms are showing you content from people you don’t follow if it performs well or you’ve shown an interest in related content.
I’ve also calculated the percentage reach for each of the channels. So, in other words, if you have an account with 100,000 followers reaching 5,000 would be five per cent. It’s a marker of how effective the content is.
But its TikTok with a 16.6 per cent engagement rate that’s the real winner. That’s more than ten times the social platform’s suggested 1.5 per cent benchmark. That would be of interest no doubt to political pollsters.
The overall raw numbers pan out in a very similar shape for overall engagement numbers. On average, the 77,000 engagements for TikTok outrank the 25,000 engagements on Facebook and 21,000 on Instagram.
Part 2: What you can learn from Andy Burnham’s social media strategy
Collaborations, collaborations, collaborations. His team love to set him up with a collab. That’s working with an interviewee for a chat with content often being shared. Of the 25 posts, seven are collaborations. This works here to show a very human side. 4
He sits down with Elizabeth Day from the ‘How to Fail’ podcast which elicits an emotional moment where Andy Burnham reveals how his Dad’s Alzheimer’s disease is so advanced he doesn’t realise his son has been made Prime Minister. Imagine your crowning glory being taken away from you, you are invited to wonder. It’s a touching moment that probably wouldn’t work with a political interviewer. It reaches 100,000 engagements on Burnham’s Instagram but isn’t posted to TikTok or Facebook by his team.
Instead, the ‘How to Fail’ channel is where you can find it on TikTok and Instagram along with eight other clips and a 54-minute podcast on Spotify and other providers. That’s the nature of collaborations.
He also meets @classicfootyshirts to talk about his love of Everton FC as well as the more heavyweight former diplomat Alexander Dragonetti. There’s also street voxpopper @robcolfer which allows him to talk about Sheffield music and science influencer Big Manny which has more than 100,000 engagements across Instagram and TikTok.
The basic sums of this is that he can break out of his own channel and reach other audiences who probably aren’t following much hardcore politics. It’s a smart move as part of a wider strategy. Critics may say this is not rigorous feet to the fire scrutiny.
Working with influencers will probably work in a honeymoon period. In times of crisis I’d expect this will probably be left in the toolbox.
Influencers. Yes, the public sector can work with influencers. But a bit of prep is needed to make sure you are not sitting down with a dark past or shady opinions.
It’s not posted across all channels. This is such an important lesson from this exercise. Content is posted to the platform where it’ll work best. So, stop the boats is reserved for Facebook. Posts about training for young people go to TikTok. That makes sense. Be aware of the channel.
Bespoke content. Sometimes there was Instagram-only, TikTok-only and Facebook-only content. I was surprised to see Andy Burnham’s admins experiment with text-only posts on Facebook which are also quite long form. Several hundred words on a topic is perhaps surprising.
Softer content gets the audience for the drier policy stuff.. This is not the best performing content but posts which set out what the PM has done that week. They feel like the meat and potatoes. They want you to know this. My guess is that softer content reels people in to create a bigger crowd for the more serious messages.
Video, video, video. There’s so much video. To someone who has been banging on about the importance of video this gladdens my heart. But it is not a cure all. There are times when it’ll work and times when it won’t.
Not so much traditional politician content. The collabs by definition break outside of the politician at the Despatch Box or lectern. In fact, it’s notable how little traditional PMQs sound bite or lectern content there is. Why would he? He’s about doing things differently.
To camera and in conversation. Burnham sometimes delivers a piece to camera and sometimes is captured chatting to an interviewee. That feels deliberate. Mixing it up freshens it up and will deliver different results. The piece to camera can be the points he wants you to know. Counter intuitively, the conversations with interviewers reveal the most personal and intimate content. Revealing the point about his Dad’s dementia may feel a little too manipulative if it was in a speech.
Hope. One of his early positions is the aim to restore a sense of hope. Indeed, there’s a video which captures this. So much of the internet can be powered by rage and there’s an absence of angry finger pointing here. In this snapshot of content he doesn’t mention his political enemies by name. They’re not even in the screen. His team would probably argue that the content reflects the hope message.
Speaking off the cuff. As an experienced politician he makes a lot of what he says look effortless. He has an ability to communicate without notes. This is rare. Warning: most politicians trying to emulate this will struggle. He has a well thought-out message and he delivers it in conversation rather than set piece soundbite from an autocue. There is no Tony Blair-style jarring of ‘This is no time for soundbites… but I feel the hand of history on my shoulder.’
All this will make it difficult for other politicians to replicate. The bright comms team will anticipate this. The more tightly scripted and tightly edited Oxford City Council approach feels a better route for the less experienced performer.
Part three: the content itself
Dive in, have a look. It’ll change with time and events no doubt
VIDEO:I’m back down at Ashton Bears. A selfie video shot in landscape in downtime revisioting the Rugby League club he visited during the recent by-election.
Instagram engagements: not posted
TikTok engagements: not posted
Facebook engagements: 9,200
Video length: 1 minute 42 seconds.
VIDEO:AI is important so is engineering. A video direct to camera in hi-vis celebrating engineering and other jobs. This is related to the policy announcement also in this run about practical jobs being important.
VIDEO:Ask me anything. Taking questions posted on a range of subjects some tricky and some not. While one shot with captions, it is made visually more interesting by jump cuts that crop in on each closer creating pace and intimacy. This plugs into the internet convention ‘ask me anything’ when famous people take questions from the public.
Likely to appeal to: A scrolling audience.
Hook: ‘Ask me anything’.
Instagram engagements: 5,900.
TikTok engagement: 21,300
Facebook engagements: 10,900
Video length: 1 minute 30 seconds.
VIDEO:Collaboration with @ellisplatten(138,000 followers) the man who owns classicfiootballshirts. Ellis uses the Number 10 podium to joke how his first policy would be to make everyone wear a football shirt.
VIDEO:It shouldn’t just be about University education. This is shot with an off-screen interviewer the PM is engaged with. It covers a significant policy change. Young people should be encouraged that vocational education is a good route foir their career.
Likely to appeal to: Parents and young people.
Hook: “For too long, young people have been told there’s only one route to success.”
VIDEO:The need to devolve power. A piece to camera celebrating the regional differences of a roll / barm / tea cake / cob to make the point that local people know what’s to be done locally.
Likely to appeal to: People from the Midlands and North.
Hook: Now this is a barm and no-one can tell me any different.
In July 2026, more than 600 people who live in Nethy Bridge in the Scottish highlands were advised to leave their homes as wildfire threatened their homes.
This was a hugely significant fire which came after weeks of baking temperatures.
The fire and the escalation of the support was a thing of controversy.
But how was the news communicated? I looked at a three day period from July 24.
Breaking it down into basic terms, there is a mixed footprint.
There will be, I’m sure, after-the-event reviews of the event which will also look at the communications. This will no doubt far more detailed than this blog.
But looking at a snapshot some points emerge.
Much of the fire, police and national park content was datestamped. This builds in obsolescence and prevents the algorithm serving something five days down the track without the consumer understanding this is dated.
X was largely ignored by the public sector. Highland Council posted eight times but on average received seven engagements. Scottish Fire & Rescue never posted to the channel while Cairngorms National Park Authority’s account is dormant. The 50 tweets surfaced on the search term ‘Cairngorms’ focussed on the politics and conspiracy theories.
Facebook was where the engagement was. Content performed strongly on this platform. On average a Scottish Fire & Rescue post received more than 3,600 engagements while the Cairngorms National Park received more than 3,100 likes, comments and shares.
Switching off Facebook comments may have affected reach. Highland Council stopped anyone commenting to their updates and saw their engagements notably lower. It’s possible that a time of crisis people may have wanted to ask a question or tag in a friend or family member. Then again, Highland Council were playing a supporting role in the incident.
Scottish public sector has not embraced TikTok but the public have. The Herald, Sky News, BBC News, Inverness Courier and other journalism sources provided rolling content. Twelve of the top 50 TikToks on July 27 were from news sources. Others were posted from influencers and other news aggregators.
In a crisis, helpful information works. In other times, creative solutions are needed to attract an audience. In a crisis, basic timely information attracts an audience.
Turbulance is everywhere in the public sector right now.
A casino wheel is spinning and it’s uncertain how that’s going to land in large parts of local government, NHS and police.
The uncertainty doesn’t end with the announcement, either. That can be the start of it.
Now, strategically all this is an opportunity. A head of comms can start again with a blank piece of paper and design something really fit for purpose. That’s exciting if you are up for change.
But how does that feel to the individual?
“Not great, Bob,” as the meme says.
The skills we need
Earlier this year, I wrote 77 skills a comms team needs to have. You can read that here.
That can be useful to the head of comms but reflecting on it this week, what lessons can that teach an individual?
In plain terms, the list shows that no individual can master all these skills. But there are core skills you can have.
As an individual, get your core skills polished. Learn new skills. But above all think of what you are doing as solving problems. You don’t look after Facebook, you communicate with an audience of over 30s online.
Look, I know that seems a bit LinkedIn but Facebook pages are the tactic while reaching that audience can help bring results and thats where you need to be.
In the words of George Harrison, all things must pass.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
One part of my brain thinks ‘about time’ while the other is just glad they are finally using tools that can effectively reach audiences.
So, with that in mind, I’ve written a Blue Peter-style summary to help bring you up to speed.
If you’ve not been using it here’s what you need to know.
No, I don’t think you should be on it just for the sake of it.
Yes, I do if you want to communicate with younger people.
TikTok was never banned
I know surprising, isn’t it? But it was never banned. The advice from UK Government and devolved governments was not to put TikTok onto a device which also had work emails. A trip to Argos to buy a burner phone would have enabled the organisation to carry on safely within the advice.
More than a few people I’ve spoken to either didn’t know the full guidance or used it as an excuse.
For me, if you don’t want to use it for strategic or capacity reasons that’s no problem. So long as you are clear what your strategy or capacity exactly is.
Your public sector TikTok strategy
Your chief executive may not like TikTok… they are not the audience. There’s a degree of snobbery and misunderstanding about TikTok from people who don’t use it. No, it’s not all dancing nurses.
It’s not just young people. What began as something for under 24s has broken out to older users. Almost eight in ten of under 24-year-olds use TikTok. That’s expected. But the figure is around half of people in their early forties. Surprised?
TikTok is a video-first platform. You switch it on and you are delivered video straight away.
It’s about your interests not your connections. Twitter, Facebook and the other social media channels started off by serving content into your timeline from people you follow. TikTok turned this on its head and serve you instead based on your interests. So, if you spend time watching midweek recipe ideas on TikTok then the platform algorithm works out thats what you are interested in so will give you more.
This curated feed lands on the For You Page (FYP). More than 90 per cent of video watched on TikTok is this rather than the ‘friends’ or ‘following’ options.
Entertainment. People go to TikTok to be entertained. If you can slip in some health advice on the way you are winning.
Common TikTok mistakes
Just whack onto TikTok what you’ve already done for other platforms. I’ve seen this done. It never works. To borrow a line from the video platform, ‘Don’t make an ad, make a TikTok.’ Make something that’s going to work.
Hello, my name is. The ‘my name is’ NHS bedside routine introduces the patient to the medical professional. Avoid this on TikTok. You have barely more than a second to hook people into watch your video. Don’t blow it with a name. Add the name and job title as a title on the screen.
Thinking its too hard. TikTok will take time but you don’t have to block out three days a week to make the platform work.
Thinking you don’t have the content. You probably do. But people won’t automatically find what happened at finance and audit scrutiny committee interesting.
Seeking sign-off for here today and gone tomorrow trends. A trend is a video that has worked for someone and people would like to replicate.
Hot topics will get a response. CAHMS, the part of the NHS that looks after teenage mental health, made a gentle TikTok with a nurse. This turned into a reaction video from a deeply unhappy service user. The original CAHMS post had allowed a re-use of the original when it was uploaded. This can be unchecked to make it harder.
Common ways to win on TikTok
The first second matters. A text hook on the screen should tease and tantalise. You have a second to make an impact before the scroller scrolls.
Look for inspiration on TikTok. See what others have done not just in the public sector but in other places, too. A particular approach can inspire something that can work for you.
It’s 30 seconds tops. The optimum time for a TikTok is between 20 and 30 seconds. However, there is also an additional trend for longer videos if they are of value.
Look for volunteers. The Black Country Museum were an early success on TikTok as they included five or six of their period-dressed demonstrators. The comms team would have a conversation with them to see if an idea or a trend would work with them.
Experiment. The people behind the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue account took six months to work out how they should use it. For them, it turned into a channel for youth engagement, recruitment and some fire safety. How about advice for business? That’s LinkedIn, not TikTok.
Make it for the platform. While there is a lot of criossover between the vertical video that works on Reels and TikTok start with the idea of making it work on TikTok first.
Yes, there are good public sector accounts
TikTok has taken root in public sector comms England far more than Wales and especially Scotland. There is limited uptake in Northern Ireland.
For ideas and inspiration, here’s some accounts to look at.
Southwark Council in London have used TikTok as a way to reach different audiences with 300,000 views on their output.
British Transport Police use the platform to give human travel safety and reassurance advice. One clip reached 2.1 million views.
South Yorkshire Police were early breakout stars on the platform with their output reaching more than four million views.
Worcestershire NHS have done some fine work to show that you don’t need to be an urban area to reach an audience. One clip of human story telling where a patient weds his fiance has more than five million views.
South Wales Police use TikTok intelligently to communicate with residents. One clip that uses a trend to show the breadth of work they do reached 22 million.
Met Police. The police in London have some strong figures which show how powerfully and intelligently edited body-worn and CCTV footage can show a compelling narrative.
But it’s also worth saying that the corporate approach is one way TikTok is being used. Another are health influencers.
Dr Rajan Karan, an NHS surgeon and educator, has more than five million followers on TikTok, a podcast and YouTube channel.
Dr Nathan Spence creates content aimed at NHS professionals and people interested in medicine.
Nurse Cerys who has moved from the UK to Australia is your actual nurse influencer with management and everything.
That’s a taster. For more, you are very welcome to come along to video training I deliver.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
It looks as though Facebook may be coming for a lifesaving workaround… but this is not the end of the world.
In the olden days, adding a link to a post was standard.
But then Facebook began clamping down on the reach of these posts. Why? Because the longer you spend on the platform the more attractive you are to advertisers.
Now, a vanishingly small 1.9 per cent of people’s Facebook timelines are this kind of post.
The workaround has long been been putting a link in the comments.
But Facebook are now actively experimenting with throttling this approach by disabling links added as a comment. In other words, the link posted did not turn into a hyperlink that allows the user to click through to a webpage. Instead, it just sits there as pointless unclickable text.
I first came across this on some newspaper sites so thought I’d take a look at public sector pages.
A straw poll I carried out of 50 public sector Facebook pages 32 per cent of links in their comments have been disabled.
The pages were selected at random and there was no link between what kind of organisation they were or even if they used a third party scheduling tool.
Here a post via Orlo doesn’t have a hyperlink…
Here a post via Orlo has a link…
Neither organisation have done anything wrong as I can see.
A few weeks ago I was asked to run a session of communicating in dangerous times to an audience of people who work in the community cohesion space.
These are people who work in and with councils to allow different communities to get along with each other.
One comment in particular from an audience member was particularly striking. She was an Afro-Caribbean lady in her 40s. I paraphrase, but she said the racism and hostility she sees has never been worse.
But what is the publiuc sector and others doing about it, she asked?
It wasn’t enough, she said, for the public sector to ask her for help with a survey.
“Where are they when we really need them,”
“I’m now at a point where I’m starting to think ‘what’s the point?’
“There have been times when we asked them for support and they’ve gone away and thought about it and then told us ‘we’re not getting involved.’
“If you can’t help when we need it why should we help you when you need us?”
This is not an unreasonable thing to expect.
In a YouGov survey in 2026, 80 per cent of people said that Britain was ‘somewhat’ or ‘a great deal’ racist.
It’s a conversation I’d like to come back to because all too often where is the public sector?
Do the right thing is a good code to live by.
What’s wanted?
As an absolute basic, don’t tolerate hateful behaviour online.
The very minimum this can be done is in the online comments section on the pages the public sector look after.
Should you be posting hot button topics? Pride, Ukraine, Black History Month, Diwali, Eid, Remembrance Sunday, flags and Christmas are just some of the topics that can bring out abuse.
The temptation is not to get involved in the short term for an easy life.
But medium and long term, if you don’t post on these issues you are letting part of your community down. You are not recognising the festivals that are important to them. You chip away at the society that tolerates those points of difference.
To be British is to be tolerant.
And if you don’t draw a line in the sand on vile comments, what’s the point of you?
Have a set of social media house rules, enforce them and tell people that they’ve been enforced.
I’ve blogged before on the need to plan ahead for hot button topics. Keep a list of bullet points to counter what may be said. For example, why should the Royal British Legion mark Black History Month? Because of the 1.7 million Commonwealth soldiers who gave their lives in two world wars. That’s why.
Be factual.
But on occasion, call it out.
How to do draw a line in the sand and stand up for the community
Oldham Council on their Facebook page announced their new youth Mayor.
Hassan Ali Jabbar is a mechanical engineering apprentice who succeeds Penelope Spencer-Simpson.
Racists came out in force.
But rather than spinelessly take down the post or switch off comments Oldham Council’s admin pinned a comment defending the lad.
“To anyone who thinks it is ok to come to our page and leave racist comments – you are not welcome here. This is a post about the Youth Mayor of all people. To make this the target of your hatred is vile, and you should be ashamed.”
In short, they drew a line in the sand and called out unacceptable behaviour. Ninety people liked the comment.
Huge credit to Oldham Council for this. This is gold standard work.
They didn’t identify names or enter a ‘he said, she said’ discussion with the offenders because that would be pointless.
The support was also recognised by the Oldham Bangladeshi Society on Facebook.
That’s support that they can probably draw on at some point in the future.
Tapping into racism as a business strategy
But it doesn’t stop there.
The Oldham Times covered the story with the headline ‘Oldham Council slams ‘vile’ and ‘racist’ comments over youth mayor appointment.
Sadly, the Newsquest-owned title’s page in the comments has allowed comments that were stomach-churningly unpleasant.
I’m going to tell you a tale I keep coming back to that’s just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago when I learned it.
It was the late 1990s and I was getting to grips being a junior reporter on The Halesowen News in the Black Country. I’d called the neighbouring Stourbridge office to book a photographer to take a picture of a building for a story.
“We don’t take pictures of buildings, Dan,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “Buildings don’t buy newspapers. People do. Put people into the picture.”
So, I made some phone calls to ensure that people connected to the story could be in the picture.
It was a lesson that stuck with me. It was the reason I’d be ringing round schools in the circulation area to arrange a spread of pics for an Easter bonnet parade, Comic Relief or Christmas Nativity shows.
Why people? Because people bought newspapers to see themselves, their children and their friends.
Why people in online content? Because people like to see themselves, their children and their friends. They can connect with that content. They share, like, comment and connect.
Besides, if people see people like them in content they are most likely to connect with it.
Human stories in an age of AI
Earlier this year, Reuters published their journalism trends report. In it, a third said they would be doing less evergreen content because if could be done more efficiently by AI. They were going to concentrate on more human stories because humans were better at that. In the survey, 72 per cent of news publishers said they would be making more human stories.
You don’t have to look far for this content.
Here, Merseyside Police are shown on patrol in Liverpool city centre ahead of Jewish celebrations. A member of the public is pixelated.
Here is an AI image of Merseyside Police officers in Liverpool City Centre talking to a man in a baseball cap with the part of his face pixelated.
I asked ChatGPT to knock it up.
The image is a little too perfect. The officers’ caps aren’t quite right and I’m not sure if there’s a giant wheel in that location.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
In my dealings with police and AI the common theme is trust. Will this damage trust? If it will they won’t do it.
More work in, better results out
If it takes seconds to post, it probably won’t be effective.
You can ask Canva to knock-up an image with some text and you can tick a box. But the long shadow of poor engagement will also damage the reach of your next piece of content.
You may need to send a couple of emails to help create that people content. So, send those emails.
Better but less is a useful way to operate.
Examples
Show human stories
NHS England on LinkedIn celebrates Windrush Day with a human story on Vince who came to Britain from Jamaica in 1958. It is told from the perspective of his daughter Marisa. These are the people that came from the Caribbean to give a life of service in Britain.
Show dedicated staff
Ian the Walsall school patrol officer is recognised by being shortlisted in this BBC Midlands competition. The BBC-made content shows how taken aback the veteran lollipop person and there‘s a vox pop of reactions from kids.
National Parks in the UK often struggle to square the circle between the people who live there, businesses and visitors. By showing the Peak District is open to everyone more people are encourage to go and explore. In this Reel, the Muslim Hikers show in effect service users enjoying Kinder Scout.
Or here, with Edinburgh Science on Instagram.
Cannily, it looks like they’ve taken the camera roll from a freelance photographer they’ve engaged and produced a video of the images.
This is a blog of two parts, firstly some alarming academic research on community Facebook groups so brilliant I wish I’d written it myself. Secondly, some steps you can take to tackle the issues.
But first the issues, Facebook groups and Nextdoor communities have become a hotbed of misinformation.
It’s especially a problem in areas of the UK without healthy journalism.
By looking at thousands of posts they have quantified the problem. In some cases, no doubt, they have lifted the rock that decision makers would rather not see. It that’s you, it’s important you see this.
Why are online community spaces so important?
As newspapers have closed and newsrooms thinned out, online community spaces have often become the prime source of local information.
Ofcom says UK Facebook groups are the most important source of council information for everyone aged 25 to 64.
Two thirds of the UK people use Facebook and two thirds use groups. That’s about half the UK population.
Nextdoor stats are harder to comeby with the platform claiming 10 million users in 2024.
In short, if it happens in the community then it tends to happens in the community Facebook group first. However, as the research shows, much power is in the hands of the admin with groups not subject to any complaints or fact-checking procedures.
Is this a problem?
The research says hold their beer.
What’s the size of the problem
This is where the research comes in so useful.
On Facebook, 4 per cent of content is misinformation
On X, 28 per cent of content is misinformation.
40 per cent of Facebook community groups have misinformation.
80 per cent of X searches in a community found misinformation.
16 of 19 Nextdoor communities had misinformation.
In Northern Ireland and Scotland the problem was worse than the rest of the UK.
If anything, this is at the low end of my experience. Some groups I’ve been a member of have had far, far more than 4 per cent misinformation.
In news deserts, the problem is worse
News desert are places that have no of few organs of journalism. In the olden days, this used to be the local paper. As advertising has moved from print to Google and Facebook these outlets have struggled and closed.
In news deserts, there is three times as much misinformation.
Where there are strong news outlets the problem is halved.
You can take a closer look at the issue by taking a look at research published by the Public Interest News Foundation in late 2025. It’s scary reading. It’s also surprising.
Large parts of London are effectively news deserts without local journalism.
In elections, it’s even worse
When polls are about to open, the problem gets worse. In the Gorton & Denton Westminster by-election research showed a 26 times higher spike of misinformation.
In supporting research on the Makerfield Westminster by-election misinformation increased by 19 per cent as a percentage of all posts. For news, they quadrupled.
So, what to do?
The research makes some great points for policy makers. Most of them are out of reach of councils, police, fire or NHS there’s several approaches to take. The £20 million national fund to help people understand misinformation would be lovely, for example. But that’s for UK and devolved Government.
Here’s some approaches based on my own experience and observation.
What a public sector comms team can do
Start by mapping. Have you list of the Facebook groups in your area? Do you know your Nextdoor numbers? Do you know how diverse your community is? Do you know the best way to reach in an emergency the Romanian community who may have built-up in your area?
The community forums are going to be the most useful.
Niche communities like Stamp Collecting in Stafford will be less so.
Commonly, there are community noticeboards, heritage groups, photography groups, campaign groups around an issue and selling groups.
Share your content directly. If you can join a Facebook group as a page and share content then do so. Don’t bombard groups but if the content is relevant then do so. Try and do so directly. You’ll reach more people. Example: Here’s where you can get a flu jab this winter. Full list here…
Share your content through advocates. Create a WhatsApp group of supporters who are happy to take and amplify your work. So the Polish-speaker who is member of Polish groups is worth their weight in gold. Example: Oto, gdzie możesz zaszczepić się na grypę tej zimy. Pełna lista tutaj… (Here’s where you can get a flu jab this winter. Full list here…)
Don’t challenge the misinformation directly. This is where UK Government advice on misinformation comes in handy. Don’t add your comment onto a thread. It just amplifies the misinformation. If needs be challenge it by giving the accurate information in a new thread or in other groups. Example: Here’s video of the Bangladeshi nurse explaining in Bengali what the flu jab is and why it is safe to take taking on board community concerns posted as a seperate post not as a comment.
Escalate monitoring and comms at election time. This isn’t about the comms team fact-checking every post. This is about keeping an eye on what the facts are. Example: Here’s what the law says on what you can take into a polling station.
The temptation is to reserve these tactics for special occasions. The moral of the Social Market Foundation research is that misinformation in community spaces is an everyday thing.
Misinformation needs to be challenged.
I get that time is precious. But at the end of the day democracy is what’s at stake.
So build community groups into your communications every day.
Don’t look the other way.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
More than a decade ago, the playbook for emergencies in the UK was to post to Twitter and for partners to retweet.
Violence in Northern Ireland shows that strategy is long gone.
Effective communications is now video across a range of platforms.
The incident
On June 8, a Sudanese man is arrested by police in North Belfast after an attempted murder in the street. This prompts nights of violence where homes occupied by people of colour were targeted.
Indeed, the incident was filmed on a smartphone and posted online.
TV crews filmed and there was user generated footage of cars on fire and people being forced out of their own homes in the resulting violence which targeted immigrants not connected with the original attack.
Media coverage as well as user generated content also circulated in the anti-racist demonstrations in the days to follow.
News is video
On average in Northern Ireland, Ofcom says that video sharing sites are viewed for 49 minutes a day. Facebook is the third most important source of news after BBC and ITV channels. In an emergency, it makes sense for PSNI to have its own social channels it can contribute to.
All this underlines the importance of TikTok as a news channel. In a time of crisis, people will look towards journalists who are often on the ground fastest.
Media relations matters.
Four core videos were created by PSNI over a four day period
Just one of the four core videos was posted to X. It received minimal views. The police force had stopped posting to district X accounts in four months earlier. Data here doesn’t undermine this decision.
News is TikTok
As the Fennimore Harper analysis shows, news plays out strongly on TikTok. Thankfully, PSNI had a presence on the channel. Without this, they would not have been able to deliver their message to the platform so strongly.
Indeed, the best single performance of a video was the Chief Constable’s renaissance to diverse communities which attracted 185,000 views. With TikTok being an international platform and the Belfast incidents a trending topic this was to perform well.
The post Good Friday Agreement has shown that the world beyond Northern Ireland are a factor in the prosperity of the place.
A communications strategy for 2026 needs to have TikTok.
Strategic sharing
The four key videos were shared across TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. No content relating to the outbreak of disorder was posted to LinkedIn.
Normally, I’d advise not to create once and post to multiple channels. What can work with an Instagram audience may not work on TikTok, for example. But in a time of crisis this makes sense.
Corporate and district accounts
Given the news was of national and international importance, it makes sense for the corporate PSNI channels to be used.
The PSNI North Belfast Facebook page was also used. The numbers were not as strong as the corporate channels. That’s bound to happen. But there’s every chance the content on this local page may have reached an audience not following the corporate channels.
Switching off comments
I’m past allowing comments on every post. There are times like this when comments can be done without. It would only take-up the time and resource of a member of staff enforcing house rules and banning multiple people who may not be from the area.
On Facebook, PSNI restricted who could comment on their content. Bravo.
YouTube flatlined
The video numbers on the corporate YouTube shouldn’t be that much of a worry. Most people don’t navigate to an organisation’s video channel for updates. They can find that elsewhere.
But as YouTube is a good place to access historic content it makes sense to post it.
In a time of crisis, be straight
In the past, I’ve heard senior people object to TikTok because ‘it’s all dancing nurses.’ This hackneyed statement is bankrupt. There are lessons to be learned from how video is consumed on each platform. In peacetime, the public sector needs to compete for viewsin the attention economy. But in a time of crisis to be helpful and clear is the most important thing. A man has been attacked. This is a serious matter and the content reflects this.
Overall
I’ve been an admirer of PSNI’s communications for several years. Police forces in other parts of the UK have obstacles to content with. In Northern Ireland, there is also the long shadow of the Troubles and the Republican and Unionist traditions.
Clearly, a more detailed analysis will follow in months to come which will go into broader detail
But overall, there is much to learn and admire in content created with cool heads in the face of panic and violence.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
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