The Conservative leader on the London Assembly is facing investigation after sharing an AI video of a small boat migrant brandishing a machete.
Labour has complained about Susan Hall posting the fake clip of a man in life vest on a dinghy shouting "this is the end of England" as he waves a huge blade in the air and throws papers overboard.
Alongside the video, she wrote: “‘This is the end of England’ he shouts. If we don’t stop these wretched boat crossings he could be right.
“Deport them all I say. They should not be allowed to stay here under any circumstances.”
Ms Hall shared the post on X on July 1 and said she has since deleted the video after being told it could have been AI generated.
The fake clip appears to be based on a video shared the day previously by a news website, but it did not show the man speaking English, throwing papers or holding a machete.
In a letter to the Greater London Authority Monitoring Officer, Rory McKenna, Labour Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark, Marina Ahmad, said: "It is clear from the video and Assembly Member Hall’s accompanying text that it is being used to make a political point about small-boat crossings, deportations and migration.
“Assembly Member Hall is entitled to her views on these topics, even if I disagree with those views. Political disagreements are vital to the democratic process...However, using fake AI generated videos to express these views is wrong.”
Ms Ahmad, who is chair of the Labour group on the London Assembly, argued that Ms Hall may have broken the Greater London Authority’s Code of Conduct, specifically the principle that “holders of public office should be truthful”.
She said: “AI-generated misinformation is not a toy for politicians chasing clicks. This is exactly the sort of fake, inflammatory content that is poisoning our politics.
“Susan Hall needs to explain to Londoners why she was happy to share it.”
Ms Hall told the Standard: “I didn't recognise that as AI. Ages after it was done someone said it might be, so I deleted it.
“Isn't it a shame that Labour don't spend their time scrutinising the Mayor instead of wondering about tweets.”
Ms Hall last year faced criticism for sharing a social media post which featured an AI image of the Mayor of London struggling in water.
She said the picture of Sir Sadiq Khan appearing to be drowning was "meant as a lighthearted joke".
Sir Sadiq has previously warned about online disinformation and the impact it is having on the capital.
“I realised a few years ago that my experience of London, knocking on doors, speaking to Londoners on a daily basis versus the perception of London you see online doesn’t seem to match up,” he told the Standard earlier this year.
“We’ve done a lot of work, spoken to lots of experts and what’s quite clear is big tech is responsible for a lot of good but some bad as well. There is now an outrage economy that’s built around what I call a division dividend.
“What that means is people and companies are profiting from poison and division and at the core of this is the way the algorithms work on social media. Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube or Snapchat, what it does is it monetises negative messages but also it provides a platform for people who have their own agenda.”
