UK finally copies France and Sweden on online disinformation
Key Points
- The UK will set up a National Centre for Information Defence.
- The centre will detect, attribute and disrupt hostile state disinformation.
- MPs recommended the centre in a March Foreign Affairs Committee report.
- France and Sweden already run similar national agencies.
- MPs want the body public-facing, statutory and accountable to Parliament.
The Prime Minister has announced a new national centre to counter disinformation from hostile states.
The Foreign Affairs Committee welcomed the National Centre for Information Defence in a statement on Wednesday (23 September), saying it had recommended the body in its Disinformation Diplomacy report in March.
The committee said the new centre will detect, attribute and disrupt information warfare from hostile states such as Russia.
France and Sweden already run national centres to counter this threat, and the committee cited both countries when it urged the UK to follow suit.
France set up its agency, Viginum, in 2021 to track foreign digital interference, while Sweden launched its Psychological Defence Agency in January 2022.
The Government only partially agreed with the recommendation at the time, saying it would consider the idea alongside the findings of the Rycroft Review.
“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,” said Emily Thornberry, Labour MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
“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,” Thornberry added.
“We thought the response from Whitehall had been ‘talk to the hand because the face ain’t listening’, but it seems we were wrong,” she said.
The committee received evidence during its inquiry that Russian disinformation campaigns targeted the UK and its allies to influence democratic elections.
“During our inquiry, the Committee received extensive evidence of the scale of Russian disinformation targeting both the UK and our allies, particularly in order to influence the outcome of democratic elections,” said John Whittingdale, Conservative MP and committee member.
“It is very welcome that the Prime Minister has now shared our assessment that Russia is conducting information warfare against the West and is taking action,” Whittingdale said.
The committee wants the centre to operate as a public-facing body with its own legal basis and direct accountability to MPs.
“As recommended in our report, this should be a public-facing body, placed on a statutory footing, and accountable to Parliament,” said Richard Foord, Liberal Democrat MP and committee member.
“We hope it demonstrates a new and robust response from the UK to hostile state information warfare,” Foord added.
The committee said it will track the new centre’s progress and scrutinise its work.
