Democracy depends on accurate and responsible media. When the airways are flooded with hate and falsehoods, it becomes difficult for citizens to access the facts and make informed decisions. And when media hate begins to escalate, this can lead to deadly real-world violence.
Britain’s hyper-partisan newspaper industry is notoriously unreliable – and has been criticised for fuelling hate crime. Yet for many years the broadcasting regulator Ofcom held TV and radio to much higher standards.
However, since 2021 there has been a dramatic deterioration in Ofcom’s enforcement: In 2009, it upheld over 200 complaints. In 2025, that figure was just 22 – a 90% reduction.
Ofcom has clear rules around hate speech and accuracy. Yet it has repeatedly failed to investigate hateful and misleading commentary on GB News and Rupert Murdoch’s Talk TV.
The regulator’s inaction has enabled a significant downgrading of standards on UK TV and radio, including a dangerous rise in anti-migrant fear-mongering and the return of extreme climate denial.
If left unchallenged, there is a danger that Ofcom will oversee an even more dramatic slide towards a “Fox News style” UK media, and a further proliferation of toxic narratives which fuel the far right.
Thanks to the efforts of Stop Funding Hate and Stop Funding Heat supporters, GB News has now lost over £130 million as major advertisers continue to steer clear of the channel. This has been vital in limiting the damage, by reducing the amount of money GB News has to spread its toxic content.
Equally, the channel’s owners have been willing – so far at least – to keep subsidising its losses even as most major advertisers stay well away. So alongside keeping up the pressure on GB News advertisers, it’s vital to continue pressing for Ofcom to enforce its rules.
Together we’re pushing back
In March 2026, Ofcom U-turned on several Talk TV complaints it had previously refused to probe, and opened its first investigations into climate misinformation in nine years. This came after our sister campaign Stop Funding Heat launched a joint action with Good Law Project to mobilise public pressure, while GLP sent Ofcom a detailed letter highlighting the legal weaknesses in their position.
Then in May, Ofcom announced it was investigating an airing by GB News of a one-sided interview with Donald Trump. This followed a detailed complaint we had submitted soon after the interview was broadcast, highlighting a range of unchallenged inaccuracies in the programme.
These are significant steps forward – and yet it took a lot of work to get to this point.
The progress we’re now seeing follows more than two years of campaigning by Stop Funding Heat, Stop Funding Hate, Good Law Project and a range of other allies, amid mounting public concern over the state of our media.
Ofcom’s U-turn on climate came weeks after it faced a grilling in front of a Parliamentary Committee over its failure to investigate climate misinformation, drawing on a dossier we had submitted.
That dossier, in turn, was based on a Freedom Of Information disclosure we secured from Ofcom, and which generated a widely-read Guardian article.
Since 2024, we have also:
- Tracked evidence of problematic content on GB News and Talk TV, and submitted over 100 Ofcom complaints
- Generated or supported media coverage to build public awareness – including multiple articles from Byline Times and Desmog and the Guardian.
- Highlighted problematic GB News and Talk content via social media
- Shared evidence with allies to support their campaigning on Ofcom – and amplified their work.
- Mobilised together to write to MPs raising concerns about Ofcom
What we’ve learned so far
1. Complaints alone are not enough – public pressure is key
Ofcom says it treats each complaint on its merits, regardless of the number of it receives about a specific programme. Our experience suggests that when it comes to GB News, the exact opposite is true: Ofcom will only open an investigation when it has been placed under heavy and sustained pressure.
Given that Ofcom is supposed to be guarding UK society against misinformation, it seems deeply worrying that its own assurances can’t be taken at face value.
It has been suggested that Ofcom has been slow to act because it hasn’t been receiving enough complaints about GB News content. We know from our own experience that this is not the case, having sent in dozens of complaints since 2024.
2. Working collaboratively with others is vital
We’ve achieved much more by sharing information and collaborating with other organisations than we could have done alone.
Desmog has played an essential role in documenting and publicising Ofcom’s poor handling of climate coverage – aided in part by our data on GB News and Talk – while Byline Times has done a great job of evidencing their wider failures.
Good Law Project’s campaigning reach has been crucial in mobilising a larger audience, while their legal expertise has enabled them to challenge Ofcom in court over its repeated failure to carry out its legal duties.
Over the past year, the Guardian has published a series of articles that have pushed Ofcom’s inaction up the national agenda. Meanwhile the New World’s damning and detailed investigation into Ofcom’s failings generated further debate and led to questions being raised in Parliament.
As public concern over Ofcom has grown, a range of other organisations – such as 38 Degrees – and influencers including Bimini and Liam Rondi have helped to build the public pressure.
Along the way, our campaigning work has benefited hugely from a range of more informal tip-offs from people with knowledge of Ofcom’s work and the wider regulatory system.
It’s this cumulative effort, pushing from multiple different directions, which has made it difficult for Ofcom’s leadership to continue refusing to act.
3. Our MPs have a crucial role to play – and there’s a bigger debate about how best to protect society from misinformation and hate
The limited progress we’ve seen from Ofcom has often come amid pressure from MPs, who are uniquely well-placed to challenge and scrutinise it. Parliament has the power to update the laws by which Ofcom operates – and has the legal authority to question the organisation’s leaders and hold them to account.
Our elected representatives also have an important role because there is a wider debate to be had about the changes needed to make Ofcom fit to deal with the challenges of the 21st century.
The rapid growth of social media has brought profound changes to the way people consume information – and has helped to make it far easier than at any time in history to spread dangerous misinformation to millions of people with impunity.
In a situation where dangerous falsehoods can spread to millions in a matter of hours, a regulator which takes months to act seems perilously ill-suited to the task.
Your support can help hold Ofcom to account
After more than two years of work by Stop Funding Hate, Stop Funding Heat and a wide range of others, Ofcom is now facing mounting public pressure to clean up its act.
But every month brings new reminders of how urgently change is needed. While Ofcom deliberates over its belated investigations into GB News and Talk TV, these toxic channels keep pumping out bile demonising refugees – even after this summer’s racist violence in Belfast and Thetford.
More than 1,800 hundred of us have now written to our MP, and this is a good start – but we need to do much more.
By supporting Stop Funding Hate’s Crowdfunder, you can help hold Ofcom to account, push for more robust action by MPs, and build on the progress we’ve made so far.
Over 400 people have now pledged, and every donation sends a message that we won’t let hate go unchallenged.