Disinformation is just one symptom of the authorities' failure to regulate social media

Responding to an editorial on Russian threats, Aneet Morar says companies that profit from spreading harmful content need to face real consequences

Your editorial ( The Guardian view on Russian disinformation: a foreign threat that relies on UK complicity, 23 September ) is right that Andy Burnham’s warning the Kremlin only tells half the story. I would go further: disinformation is one symptom of a wider failure to regulate the platforms that now function as critical national infrastructure.

The harms are evident across a wide spectrum. We know that engagement-driven feeds are damaging young people’s mental health. The same amplification mechanics that carry foreign propaganda also accelerate far-right radicalisation at , as your analysis of the disorder in Belfast and Southampton showed. The new generation of wearable devices, such as Meta’s smart glasses, makes recording people without their knowledge or consent a routine part of life.

Yes, the government must step up its response to disinformation, but this alone is not enough. Platforms that profit from spreading harmful content need to face real consequences: enforceable duties of care, penalties proportionate to their scale, and transparency how their algorithms decide what we see.

I have spent my career in the payments industry, where infrastructure operating at this scale would never be allowed to run without clear rules, independent oversight and liability when things go wrong. There is no good reason to hold these platforms that shape what millions of people believe to a lower standard.

Tackling the Kremlin’s bot armies matters, but until these platforms are held responsible for what they amplify, across every segment of society, we will keep treating the symptoms rather than the cause. Aneet Morar London