UK Labour MP Claire Hughes has raised alarm over a Facebook account allegedly operated from Sri Lanka that is producing AI-generated videos aimed at stoking fear and division in Britain, Newswire reported.
The page, called “Heart of UK,” is “not based in the United Kingdom” but has been reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers, Hughes said. The account uses artificial intelligence to fabricate videos depicting British people on the streets, with the intent of influencing public opinion and driving support for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
“This is not a laugh. People are falling for it,” Hughes said, warning that the page “is run by bots out of Sri Lanka designed to divide the country and interfere in elections.” She urged the public to be cautious, adding: “You can’t always believe everything you see on the internet.”
Hughes did not publicly disclose the evidence base for her Sri Lanka attribution and the claim has not been independently verified. Facebook parent Meta and Sri Lankan authorities have not commented on the allegation. The Newswire report did not name any specific operator, network or investigation underlying the parliamentary claim.
The allegation is the first time a sitting UK MP has publicly tied an AI-disinformation operation to Sri Lanka. It surfaces alongside a separate, unrelated milestone for the country’s AI sector: a University of Moratuwa and Decryptogen team this week had a sovereign Sinhala-language large-language-model paper accepted by IEEE Access.
Cybercrime arrests inside Sri Lanka have also expanded in recent weeks under the public-reporting drive on illegal foreign residency and parallel scam-centre investigations. Hughes’ parliamentary intervention may add pressure for cross-border coordination on AI-driven influence operations.
