Relevance: Intersection of algorithm-driven misinformation and public policy, in this case immigration.
> The man on the recording is baffled. He can’t understand how London Centric traced his anonymous hate-filled London TikTok account back to his employer by geolocating the wheelie bins in his videos. “I thought no one’s gonna notice that,” he says. “Why would someone?”
> Last summer, the man says, he found himself sitting in his car, analysing trends on TikTok. His day job was conducting viewings for an estate agency but he was trying to come up with an idea for a viral video account that could be run as a money-making side-hustle. “I was thinking of unique videos I can do for people,” he says on the tape. That’s when he had a brainwave: “Hate brings views.”
> At that time protests outside asylum hotels were spreading across the country. The man says he noticed “far-right people” were among the most engaged on TikTok. They were easy to rile up: “They hate such videos of illegal migrants. I was like, why not?”The result was the account Reform_UK_2025, which co-opted the logo and name of Nigel Farage’s political movement without permission from the party. It posted video tours of Londoners’ homes accompanied by an AI-generated voice claiming properties in Knightsbridge and Chelsea had been handed over to illegal immigrants for free. It smeared residents, who were visible in some of the videos, as rapists and said that others proclaimed their hatred of the UK while collecting the keys. It was an instant hit, attracting millions of views. It was also, the man confesses, all lies.
> You don’t have to believe London is anywhere near perfect to recognise the increasing divergence between the way the city is portrayed online and the reality on the streets. Sadiq Khan told London Centric that our latest investigation into this anonymous TikTok account reveals part of a “dangerous and divisive” trend that sees “bad faith actors spreading hate for clicks”. “Accounts are talking London down because the algorithms reward them for doing so,” said the mayor.
> When London Centric tried to work out who was running the Reform_UK_2025 account, our investigation led us to SmartLet Estates, a north London estate agency. When we confronted company director Sam Wasserstrum, he said he knew who was running the TikTok account but wasn’t willing to share their name with us. He claimed they were a member of the public who had been looking to rent a flat from his company. He now accepts that was a lie – and he knew it was a lie when he told us.
> Now, Wasserstrum wants to set out a different version of events. He says the person behind the camera was really a “rogue” contractor he employed for two years as a viewings agent to show potential residents around the properties. Wasserstrum says he had no idea that his employee had been running the hate-filled TikTok account until we first approached his company in November. He says the employee was sacked soon afterwards and he regrets ever telling us that a client was responsible. To back up his case, Wasserstrum provided London Centric with multiple lengthy audio recordings of what he says is him confronting the anonymous employee. One of these tapes, he says, was recorded before he told London Centric he would not reveal the name of the culprit. The other was recorded after we published our article.
> Wasserstrum did not provide the name of employee and we have not been able to independently verify the veracity of his story. However, metadata associated the audio files suggests the conversations took place around the dates that London Centric began asking questions. The extraordinary taped confession is a rare insight into what motivates people to run fake news accounts on TikTok – and how monetising engagement can also effectively monetise hate, with little concern for its real-world impact.
> The audio on the tape is clear, with Wasserstrum’s voice asking questions in what sounds like an HR-style meeting. The employee explains his motivation for setting up the anti-migrant fake news account was simple: “One day I might make some money.”The aim, he explains, was to build an audience and then make cash through TikTok, which allows people to monetise content once they reach a certain number of views and followers on the platform.
> He’d previously run a TikTok account that had amassed 24,000 followers. One night, he was astonished to find, he received his first payout from TikTok’s creator scheme. His head was turned by the substantial sum of money: “I told my wife, wow, it’s £1,000.” Then, to his annoyance, TikTok immediately deleted his account because he was just stealing other people’s videos and reposting them.
> Hooked on the income and in search for a new source of original content, he decided to start filming videos of homes across London while he was hosting viewings. He added an AI-generated voiceover about asylum seekers, rapists, and illegal immigrants then pressed upload. The audience response was instant and enormous, and TikTok’s algorithm responded by pushing it into the feeds of hundreds of thousands of people. Irate Londoners drove up engagement by complaining they couldn’t afford such properties while illegal immigrants were supposedly getting them for free.
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Relevance: Intersection of algorithm-driven misinformation and public policy, in this case immigration.
> The man on the recording is baffled. He can’t understand how London Centric traced his anonymous hate-filled London TikTok account back to his employer by geolocating the wheelie bins in his videos. “I thought no one’s gonna notice that,” he says. “Why would someone?”
> Last summer, the man says, he found himself sitting in his car, analysing trends on TikTok. His day job was conducting viewings for an estate agency but he was trying to come up with an idea for a viral video account that could be run as a money-making side-hustle. “I was thinking of unique videos I can do for people,” he says on the tape. That’s when he had a brainwave: “Hate brings views.”
> At that time protests outside asylum hotels were spreading across the country. The man says he noticed “far-right people” were among the most engaged on TikTok. They were easy to rile up: “They hate such videos of illegal migrants. I was like, why not?”The result was the account Reform_UK_2025, which co-opted the logo and name of Nigel Farage’s political movement without permission from the party. It posted video tours of Londoners’ homes accompanied by an AI-generated voice claiming properties in Knightsbridge and Chelsea had been handed over to illegal immigrants for free. It smeared residents, who were visible in some of the videos, as rapists and said that others proclaimed their hatred of the UK while collecting the keys. It was an instant hit, attracting millions of views. It was also, the man confesses, all lies.
> You don’t have to believe London is anywhere near perfect to recognise the increasing divergence between the way the city is portrayed online and the reality on the streets. Sadiq Khan told London Centric that our latest investigation into this anonymous TikTok account reveals part of a “dangerous and divisive” trend that sees “bad faith actors spreading hate for clicks”. “Accounts are talking London down because the algorithms reward them for doing so,” said the mayor.
> When London Centric tried to work out who was running the Reform_UK_2025 account, our investigation led us to SmartLet Estates, a north London estate agency. When we confronted company director Sam Wasserstrum, he said he knew who was running the TikTok account but wasn’t willing to share their name with us. He claimed they were a member of the public who had been looking to rent a flat from his company. He now accepts that was a lie – and he knew it was a lie when he told us.
> Now, Wasserstrum wants to set out a different version of events. He says the person behind the camera was really a “rogue” contractor he employed for two years as a viewings agent to show potential residents around the properties. Wasserstrum says he had no idea that his employee had been running the hate-filled TikTok account until we first approached his company in November. He says the employee was sacked soon afterwards and he regrets ever telling us that a client was responsible. To back up his case, Wasserstrum provided London Centric with multiple lengthy audio recordings of what he says is him confronting the anonymous employee. One of these tapes, he says, was recorded before he told London Centric he would not reveal the name of the culprit. The other was recorded after we published our article.
> Wasserstrum did not provide the name of employee and we have not been able to independently verify the veracity of his story. However, metadata associated the audio files suggests the conversations took place around the dates that London Centric began asking questions. The extraordinary taped confession is a rare insight into what motivates people to run fake news accounts on TikTok – and how monetising engagement can also effectively monetise hate, with little concern for its real-world impact.
> The audio on the tape is clear, with Wasserstrum’s voice asking questions in what sounds like an HR-style meeting. The employee explains his motivation for setting up the anti-migrant fake news account was simple: “One day I might make some money.”The aim, he explains, was to build an audience and then make cash through TikTok, which allows people to monetise content once they reach a certain number of views and followers on the platform.
> He’d previously run a TikTok account that had amassed 24,000 followers. One night, he was astonished to find, he received his first payout from TikTok’s creator scheme. His head was turned by the substantial sum of money: “I told my wife, wow, it’s £1,000.” Then, to his annoyance, TikTok immediately deleted his account because he was just stealing other people’s videos and reposting them.
> Hooked on the income and in search for a new source of original content, he decided to start filming videos of homes across London while he was hosting viewings. He added an AI-generated voiceover about asylum seekers, rapists, and illegal immigrants then pressed upload. The audience response was instant and enormous, and TikTok’s algorithm responded by pushing it into the feeds of hundreds of thousands of people. Irate Londoners drove up engagement by complaining they couldn’t afford such properties while illegal immigrants were supposedly getting them for free.
Social media needs to be regulated