The UK's press regulator said it would be looking into complaints made following the alleged "smear campaign" against activist Misan Harriman after four major UK publications accused him of spreading "antisemitic" conspiracy theories.
Confirming this to Novara Media on Thursday, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) said Harriman's complaints against the Telegraph , Daily Mail , Daily Express and The Times fell within its remit and that they "may raise a breach of the Editors' Code of Practice".
The complaints relate to articles published by the four newspapers in May, which Harriman and his supporters say falsely portrayed him as promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Harriman is a Nigerian-born photographer and activist who has gained a large following for his commentary on social justice issues, particularly his advocacy for Palestinian rights during Israel's war on Gaza. He has chaired London's Southbank Centre since 2021.
The reports prompted a campaign led by NewsCord, an online platform focused on challenging media bias, which encouraged readers to submit complaints to IPSO.
While no decision has been made, the newspapers have 28 days to resolve the matter with Harriman before it is escalated to IPSO's complaints officer.
"It's promising," Nima Akram, founder of NewsCord, told The New Arab. "I truly believe it's because of the massive volume of complaints that just cannot be ignored," he added. IPSO confirmed to Novara that it received 22,390 complaints in May regarding coverage of Harriman, more than three times the total number of complaints the regulator received in 2025.
Although IPSO did not make a formal announcement regarding the complaints, the regulator did comment on the "mass complaint" made through a "third-party platform", which was confirmed to be NewsCord.
The regulator announced last week that it had referred NewsCord to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), a regulator for upholding information rights, data privacy for individuals, and openness by public bodies.
IPSO said it had received a large number of complaints that may have been generated using AI, as well as complaints from members of the public who said they did not understand their data would be shared with the regulator.
Responding to the announcement, Akram said he was "happy" for the ICO to investigate NewsCord.
"We've done everything in good faith, we've asked for consent, users were well aware of every action they were taking," Akram said. "Our use of AI was simply around the complaint template and personalising that using the user's information, and we were very clear about this."
Akram said NewsCord had been "very clear" about the complaints campaign, and had remained in contact with IPSO throughout the process and updated its action page to address privacy concerns.
Based on IPSO's previous rulings, Akram said he hopes the four outlets will issue a formal apology, provide an update at the top of each article, or retract the pieces.
"These outlets can no longer just spread hatred or spread misinformation and just target people with complete impunity," Akram said.
"This is us showing and proving actually people have a voice, and we have a process that works, and we have a way to hold power to account, to hold the media accountable, and this is probably our strongest signal of that playing out."