10 fake videos that are slowly eroding Britain’s trust

The public is “utterly worn down” by a constant stream of disinformation and a “fog of nonsense”, as Pepshop data finds that 2025 marks the year that trust died.

New analysis from Pepshop suggested the cause isn’t the big fake-news scandals everyone talks about, but rather the constant drip of low-grade fakery that eats away at confidence day after day: bogus NHS memos, supermarket rumours, AI scare posts and miscaptioned viral videos.

The data said the crisis isn’t deception, but exhaustion. After countless months of scrolling past small, sloppy, easily debunked claims, people lose the energy to work out what’s real.

Pepshop co-founder Kenny Campbell said: “Trust doesn’t collapse in a single moment; it erodes one low-stakes lie at a time in an environment of ambient disinformation.”

Even before the explosion of AI-generated content that has flooded the internet in recent months, researchers were warning that trust was eroding.

The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reported that 70% of people now believe government officials, business leaders and journalists deliberately mislead the public — its starkest finding in two decades. Ofcom found 64% of people struggle to tell credible information from disinformation, while RUSI warned that Britain has quietly entered a post-trust environment in which facts no longer function as shared reference points.

Campbell stressed that the communications crisis of 2025 is emerging from the quiet, constant haze of low-grade fakery that rarely gets checked, and is starting to shape how audiences respond to every message they see.

He added: “Constant exposure to misinformation doesn’t only make people believe falsehoods — it makes them doubt genuine stories too.

“A large recent review in Nature Human Behaviour found that people are more likely to disbelieve true news than to accept fact-checked false claims, suggesting that a ‘fog of nonsense." is stripping away public innocence to the point where real events can seem too implausible to trust.

“Fake news isn’t new but the trust collapse we’re seeing now is. People aren’t being fooled by one big lie; they’re being worn down by a thousand small ones. That fog of nonsense makes it harder for real information to land, no matter who’s delivering it.’

Pepshop co-founder Howard Bowden said: “The big disinformation events get the headlines, but it’s the low-level junk that does the long-term damage.

“When audiences spend all day dodging rubbish information, even genuine messages have to push through a wall of doubt. That’s the real communications challenge of 2025.”

Top-10 low-grade fakes spreading across the UK in 2025

(All verified by Reuters, Full Fact, PA or independent fact-checkers.)

1. AI-generated ‘armed hospital ambush’ in Birmingham
A dramatic image of masked men with axes outside a hospital turned out to be AI-generated. No incident occurred. (PA/Reuters, Feb 2025)

2. Fake NHS ‘closure memo’ listing hospitals shutting down
A fabricated document circulated widely on WhatsApp and Facebook. (Full Fact, early 2025)

3. Bogus claim that supermarkets will require photo ID to enter
Viral posts suggested Tesco, Asda and others were introducing mandatory ID checks. No such policy exists. (Reuters, Sept 2025)

4. AI ‘weather apocalypse’ maps predicting Category-10 storms
Met Office-style graphics showed impossible weather systems. (Reuters, Feb 2025)

5. Rumours of compulsory microchip implants for access to banking
A nationwide viral claim alleged an imminent rollout of implanted IDs. (Reuters, March 2025)

6. Fake HMRC ‘Mobility Oversight Unit’ monitoring all overseas holidays
A viral video claimed tax authorities were tracking British travel. HMRC confirmed the department does not exist. (The National/Full Fact, 2025)

7. AI-generated image of a major London landmark apparently on fire
Widely believed before emergency services confirmed no such event. (Reuters, 2025)

8. Deepfake video of a UK MP announcing a political defection
A convincing manipulated clip claimed a Reform UK defection. Fully debunked. (Full Fact, Oct 2025)

9. False claim that the DWP Christmas bonus has risen from £10 to £200
A synthetic-voice video boosted the rumour. It was false. (Full Fact, Nov 2025)

10. TikTok video claiming Greggs was testing ‘vegan steak-free steak bakes’
A supposed leak from Bristol. Greggs confirmed it was fake. (Reuters, April 2025)