Andrew Bailey calls for clampdown on ‘downright criminal’ social media scams

The Governor of the Bank of England has called on social media companies to help address “downright criminal” activity on their platforms.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, also warned on Wednesday that cyber fraud risks undermining trust in the financial systems.

Andrew Bailey, head of the British central bank, told an audience in Bangkok that there has been “no real liability” for some social media firms despite growing cases of online fraud.

Mr Bailey has himself been the target of a number of AI-deepfakes on platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, which have pictured him fighting Nigel Farage among other scenarios.

Earlier this year, the Bank reported the adverts, which it said were designed to “exploit the public”, with a number of these linking to fake news articles encouraging visitors to sign up to investment schemes.

On Wednesday, Mr Bailey indicated there should be more accountability from social media firms.

He said: “We’ve moved into quite an extreme position of, well, these platforms are open to everybody and there’s no real liability to the provision of the platform to what’s on it.

“Guess what? Everything’s on it. You know, the good, the bad and the incredibly ugly and downright criminal and terrible.”

“I don’t go around pointing the finger at people and saying: ‘You’re bad.’ What I have said is: ‘Look, there is responsibility all around.’

“And we need to evolve to a world where everybody understands this responsibility, and everybody is then a part of addressing the problem.

“We must get the social media companies involved because a lot of this fraud is transmitted through those channels.”