‘Good, bad, incredibly ugly, downright criminal and terrible’: Andrew Bailey berates social media platforms over fraud on their sites

By JOHN-PAUL FORD ROJAS, DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey has demanded that social media giants clamp down on online scams as he lambasted ‘downright criminal’ activity on some platforms.

Bailey turned his fire on tech firms as he urged them to take more responsibility over misleading and fraudulent content.

‘Everything’s on it: the good, the bad and the incredibly ugly and downright criminal and terrible,’ he said, adding that there was ‘no real liability’ for tech giants.

The remarks echo growing concerns about the use of social media by online fraudsters to lure innocent victims – and complaints that the firms are not doing enough to stop it.

Bailey himself has fallen victim to online trickery, with deepfake images posted on Elon Musk’s X platform purportedly showing him fighting Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. He has previously said the Bank found it ‘very hard’ to track down and remove the images.

The Bank earlier this year said that the posts were designed to ‘exploit the public’ with a number of them linking to fake news articles encouraging visitors to sign up to investment schemes.

A deepfake image purported to show a confrontation between Nigel Farage and Andrew Bailey

Speaking at an event at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Bangkok, Bailey said there should be more accountability for social media firms.

He said that while traditional newspapers were ‘legally responsible for everything’ they print, online platforms were the opposite

‘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,’ Bailey said.

‘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.’

But Bailey warned against a ‘compensation culture’ saying firms must focus on developing systems and technology to fight fraud.

It came as IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva also warned that cyber fraud risks undermining trust in the financial systems.

‘Trust is the foundation of every financial system,’ she said.

‘As digital finance expands, countries must work together to combat cyber-enabled fraud and preserve confidence in the technologies that support growth and inclusion.’

She said the increasing number of scams could mean major losses.

‘We are not going to stop it, so then it comes down to mitigation,’ Georgieva said.

‘Mitigating means that there is a response system that people know what they should be doing and it is shared across society.’

Banks have long called for tech platforms to shoulder some of the burden of fraud.

Latest figures from trade body UK Finance show that criminals stole £1.28 billion through payment fraud in 2025, up 4 per cent on the previous year. It said scammers were operating on an ‘industrial scale’ with 66 per cent of such frauds starting online.

The organisation called on tech firms to contribute financially as well as sharing expertise and intelligence to help prevent the crime.

Publishing the figures earlier this year, UK Finance said: ‘We urgently need stronger, enforceable responsibilities to be placed on these sectors. This is the way to reduce the harm and stop criminals and tech companies profiting from these devastating crimes.’

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