Sadiq Khan warns of London’s ‘manosphere’ after watching deepfakes of himself

Men are deliberately being fed harmful and misogynistic content online, and Sadiq Khan is no exception.

At SXSW festival yesterday, the Mayor of London warned of the growing ‘manosphere’ targeting young men in the capital, amplified by social media.

Not only does this include dangerous ‘masculinity influencers’ such as Andrew Tate who believe men are superior, but also disturbing trends aimed at hurting women.

Last year, Metro uncovered an incel trend spreading across London from Japan, which saw women being pushed and shoved out of the way by men they didn’t know.

Similarly harmful trends are circulating online. Vulnerable teenage boys are five times more likely to be fed this content, prompting the Mayor to announce a £1million package to establish more positive male role models at home and in school.

‘I often see deepfakes of myself’

The Mayor also urged tech companies to do more after he came across hateful videos on his own algorithms, including deepfakes of himself.

A deepfake is an image or video created by AI that uses a person’s likeness, sometimes without their permission. Deepfakes are often convincingly realistic and hard to detect.

Mr Khan told Metro: ‘I often see disinformation and misinformation of the platforms I use, but I am a sensible grown man, so I know to reject this, but I am worried young people might be influenced.

‘I have seen deepfake audios which sound just like me, and are spreading lies and disinformation about what I haven’t done.’

The most notable case of this was in 2024, when a fake video of Mr Khan at The Cenotaph appeared to show him making dismissive remarks about Armistice Day.

This saw far-right activists descend on the area, and police officers were assaulted.

Mr Khan added: ‘These fake videos spread to people and it leads them to have a negative view on what I am doing. And it can lead to violence.’

Teenagers fed misogynistic content

Researchers at UCL found it took just days for new social media accounts belonging to children to be fed misogynistic content.

They had set up accounts which mimicked those of vulnerable teenage boys, and soon enough the misogynistic content jumped from 13% of recommended videos to 56% in five days.

Addressing the audience at SXSW yesterday, Mr Khan said: ‘The deafening silence of the rest of society has allowed manosphere influencers to dominate the discussion.

‘Tech companies and the government have got to take the megaphones away from online misogynists. But the rest of us have got to start talking, too. And I’m proud to say that, here in London, we’re leading the way.’

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