The prime minister has asked security chiefs to establish a new National Centre for Information Defence to tackle disinformation and deepfakes damaging British interests.
In a speech at the UN General Assembly last night (22 September), Andy Burnham said the new unit will “detect, attribute and disrupt these kinds of hostile state information attacks”.
“In recent years we have seen an industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and that of many of our allies,” the PM said.
“Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fears. They’ve used bots and fake websites. Falsified newspaper articles. Forged the branding of 28 British organisations – including universities and the BBC. They’ve amplified far-right narratives.”
Burnham claimed that the Kremlin spends around £1.3bn each year on manipulating information.
He added: “We’re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community… On top of that we have seen cyber-attacks on our companies and institutions. And we know that AI will multiply the threat.”
CSW understands that the new centre will work alongside intelligence agencies, government departments, law enforcement and social media companies to draw together expertise and best practice.
It will also look at ways to strengthen the country’s ability to build resilience in communities to identify and combat disinformation, improve local community cohesion and prevent a distorted narrative about Britain.
Initial work is being led out of the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the new government body established by Burnham in July as part of his reorganisation of the centre of government.
MPs had previously called on ministers to create a “National Counter Disinformation Centre” to protect UK democracy from malign actors both at home and abroad.
A Foreign Affairs Committee report published in March said that the information environment is “increasingly being weaponised by malign state actors such as Russia, China and Iran and non-state actors like Daesh to sow distrust, undermine cohesion, and erode confidence in democratic institutions and norms”.
MPs recommended that the National Counter Disinformation Centre should be placed on a statutory footing, be subject to oversight by parliament, and be directed to understand, identify and combat foreign information manipulation and interference campaigns pitched against the UK.
It added that the centre should be similar to Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, and France’s Vigilance and Protection against Foreign Digital Interference service.