The UK Government’s new Home Office TikTok account, @SecureBordersUK, presents immigration enforcement as fast-cut spectacle. Raids, handcuffs, and deportation flights are edited using dramatic music under slogans promising to “restore order and control to our borders”. One clip ends with the words: “And it’s just getting started.”
Since launching earlier this year, the account has gathered tens of thousands of followers and more than one million views. Its bio declares: “The incentives that draw illegal migrants to the UK are being removed.” Enforcement is not simply being implemented but it is being performed instead.
Critics warn that turning state power into social media content risks deepening division, including here in Scotland, where communities already feel some of the impact fuelled by hostile migration rhetoric.
Political messaging or public information?
Miss Catriona Forrest, Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Glasgow, argues the account should be understood as political messaging rather than neutral public information.
Unlike journalists, government departments are not bound by independent editorial codes when producing social media content. On platforms such as TikTok, algorithms reward emotive, high-impact material. Context, nuance, and legal complexity rarely fit the format.
The framing matters. Individuals appear briefly on screen unnamed and voiceless before the edit cuts to statistics or slogans. Arrests are stylised. Deportations are framed as victories.
Forrest has questioned who authorised the strategy and whether it aligns with the Home Office’s own commitments to transparency and public trust. Responsibility ultimately sits with the Home Secretary. In the context of looming elections, the tone raises legitimate questions about the boundaries between governance and campaigning.
Real-world consequences in Scotland
For organisations supporting refugees in Scotland, the concern is not abstract.
Glasgow has long been a dispersal city for people seeking asylum. Community groups report that inflammatory political messaging can increase anxiety among those already living with trauma, uncertainty, and isolation.
The Scottish Refugee Council has strongly criticised the Home Office’s TikTok account. In a statement provided to us, it described the videos as “an act of performative cruelty” that turn “people in desperate situations” into social media content. It said political leaders should focus on bringing communities together rather than using “scaremongering tactics,” and stressed that people seeking asylum make up just 0.16% of the UK population. The organisation argued the real problem is a broken asylum system and harmful government rhetoric, not those fleeing war and oppression.
That figure 0.16% highlights how easily public perception can drift from statistical reality to whatever misinformation or disinformation is being spread, especially when it comes from a place of power.
Dr Paul Reilly, Senior Lecturer in Communications, Media, and Democracy at the University of Glasgow, has suggested there is little evidence that such content will significantly change minds. Those who favour stricter border controls are unlikely to need persuading and those opposed to raids and deportations are unlikely to be swayed by viral clips.
He added, while social media may not change entrenched views, what it can amplify strong reactions. Platforms reward outrage and affirmation rather than thoughtful debate. In that environment, migration risks becoming reduced to imagery and slogans instead of evidence and policy.
Enforcement as entertainment
According to the Home Office, it is acting in response to public concerns regarding irregular migration. However, critics claim that portraying enforcement as a spectacle runs the risk of normalising the public display of state power while ignoring human dignity.
Researchers and charities note that misinformation about migration is still rising because of false claims about preferential access to housing or benefits to exaggerated views of small boat arrivals. It could be argued that dispelling those myths would advance public awareness more than creating shareable raid footage.
For Scotland, the stakes are tangible. Political language does not stay online. It shapes conversations in neighbourhoods, schools, and even streets.
Critics contend that if the UK government wants to increase public trust in the immigration system, it should do so through evidence, transparency, and human decency rather than through viral content meant to garner views and clicks.
The issue is no longer limited to border enforcement as discussions about migration become more heated. It concerns the communication of power and whether it unites or divides communities.
More on society:
Friends of Bylines Network
There has never been a greater need for grassroots journalism that investigates the stories that really matter, holds power to account and champions the voices of everyday citizens. We are proudly powered by volunteers but what we do isn’t free.
STAND WITH US for independent, citizen-led journalism that makes democracy stronger, and you will even get some exclusive benefits.
