Why it’s easier to challenge fake adverts than fake news

If you see an advert that’s misleading or untrue, it’s easy to complain about it – and the chances are, something will be done about it.

Not so with misleading or untrue news in the press. 

Yes, there’s the so-called Independent Press Standards Organisation (previously called the Press Complaints Commission) – but the press regulator is hardly independent, as it’s owned and run by newspapers. 

And anyone who’s tried to make a complaint to them about untrue or misleading ‘news’ will find – as I have – that’s it’s not easy to complain, and the chances are that nothing will be done about it.

Compared to that, the Advertising Standards Authority is a breath of fresh air - a truly independent regulator of advertising across all media in the UK, that can and does bite. 

Yesterday, I chanced upon an advert for reading glasses by VisionFocus that was clearly untrue. The online ad claimed:

“Everyone over 55 is rushing to get these revolutionary reading glasses”

Everyone over 55? I don’t think so.

It took less than a minute to fill in an online complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority at: asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html

I will report soon on the outcome. The ASA publish their findings every week at asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/rulings.html.

? Last week, for example, the advertising regulator upheld a complaint against Hismile for a Snapchat story and Facebook post claiming their product was clinically proven to result in whiter teeth.

The ASA ruled against the firm for:

‘misleadingly claiming their product had been clinically proven and for exaggerating its potential effects’

The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules (Misleading advertising), (Substantiation), (Exaggeration) and (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products).

The regulator's action?

‘We told HiSmile Pty Ltd not to claim that their product had been clinically tested or proven unless they held a robust body of evidence to show that it had. 

‘We further told them not to exaggerate the potential effects of the product or to claim that it could whiten 2.2x faster than traditional whitening treatments unless it held a robust body of evidence to support that claim.’

Result: The ads must not appear again in their current form. 

• In another ruling this month, the ASA banned a TV ad for Sky TV that made misleading savings claims about their TV and Broadband package.
• Two adverts for Ryanair were also banned for misleading viewers about the impact vaccines would have on their ability to travel abroad during Easter and summer. The ASA also upheld complaints on the grounds of social responsibility.
• A website ad for the Detox Clinic Ltd was also ruled against for misleadingly stating that ozone therapy could successfully treat Covid-19 and for stating that colon hydrotherapy could treat IBS. Why? Because they did not have sufficient evidence to support the claims.

? #FAKENEWS

If only our newspapers could be similarly held to account, what a better society we’d have. 

On a wide range of major issues, from Covid-19, to climate change, to Brexit, newspapers are failing every day to present accurate and reliable information.

But what’s the remedy? There is no effective press regulator in the UK.

Just look at the trouble I had complaining about one fake story in the Daily Mail about Romanians and Bulgarians coming to the UK back in 2014.

I eventually won my complaint that the story was inaccurate, but it took seven months, and the Press Complaints Commission refused to publish their ruling.

• You can read more at: My 13 complaints against one Daily Mail story
• Or watch my video about what happened at: Daily Hate By Our Daily Newspapers

? #FULLFACT

Fortunately, we have Full Fact in the UK, that independently and regularly exposes inaccuracies. 

They describe themselves as ‘a team of independent fact checkers and campaigners who find, expose and counter the harm it does.’

Full Fact even ‘factchecked’ one of my articles lately (fortunately, they found that my post was 'all correct' – see their report at: These figures for the size of House Of Commons, House of Lords, and the EU parliament are all correct)

But Full Fact, a registered charity, has no power to regulate, or to enforce their findings. 

? #HACKEDOFF

Hacked Off is another organisation that I wholeheartedly support. It is campaigning for ‘a free and accountable press’. 

As its organisers state:

‘We believe the press should be held to standards which protect the public, strengthen democracy and safeguard freedom of expression.’

Hacked Off regularly publishes reports of how newspapers distort the news, often ruining people’s lives in the process, without the regulator, IPSO, doing anything about it

For example, the campaign recently published an investigation exposing more than 50 distortive or inaccurate stories about COVID-19 published by UK newspapers.

The campaign revealed: 

‘Whether false information about the severity of the virus, fictitious stories about miracle cures, or simply the stuff of conspiracy theories, some newspapers have spewed out the same discredited and dangerous “fake news” which has appeared on social media platforms.

‘And IPSO, the industry-controlled press complaints-handler, has done nothing to address it. 

‘As IPSO has stood by, independent fact checkers such as Full Fact and other fact checkers have embarrassed the complaints-handler time and again by pointing out the newspaper disinformation IPSO has missed.’

• You can read more at: Newspapers published more than 50 distortive or inaccurate stories about COVID

Those who have followed my posts this past decade will know how I feel about misleading or entirely untrue stories in our press.

They are helping to turn Britain into a more racist and xenophobic country, which has led directly to the vote for Brexit – by encouraging a dislike of ‘foreigners’ and ‘migrants’, and presenting a grotesquely distorted image of the European Union.

Please support the work of Full Fact and Hacked Off that are committed to ensuring more accurate reporting in the UK. 

How can any democracy function properly unless people are in possession of reliable facts?

• About Full Fact
• About Hacked Off 
• Video about newspaper lies

• My 13 complaints against one Daily Mail story:

• Report and graphic by Jon Danzig, who is a campaigning journalist and film maker who specialises in writing about health, human rights, and Europe. He is also founder of the information campaign, Reasons2Rejoin.
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