PM’s new anti-disinformation unit won’t target ‘domestic political dissent’, defence secretary says – UK politics live

Wes Streeting told GB News: ‘We’re not interested in policing domestic political dissent’ Demos , a thinktank that has done a lot of work on tackling disinformation , has also welcomed Andy Burnham’s announcement (see 8.50am ) – while also urging the PM to go further. Hannah Perry, director of digital policy at Demos, said: Right now, Britain’s information supply is being written in Moscow and spread by algorithms nobody voted for. The prime minister is right to call for a national effort. This is a national security threat, and it ends in real-world harm. Our research has found Russian propaganda poisoning the chatbots people use every day, disinformation campaigns targeting London, and social media stoking division during crisis moments from the Southport riots to recent asylum housing rows.

The door is wide open to these attacks. For too long, the approach of successive governments to disinformation has been disjointed and without organisation, allowing states like Russia to amplify lies about this country, to sow division and stoke tensions. This new National Centre for Information Security is an opportunity to finally take on this very serious threat. The foreign affairs committee recommended exactly this in March. We were extremely worried about what seemed to be a complacency of the British establishment at the disinformation being promoted from abroad, particularly from Russia. We thought the response from Whitehall had essentially been ‘talk to the hand because the face ain’t listening,’ but it seems we were wrong. I’m absolutely delighted. Continue reading...