Data Watchdog to Look Into Disinformation Units That Monitored COVID-19 Critics

People walk past the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben, at the Houses of Parliament in London, on July 15, 2022. Dominic Lipinski/PA Media

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to question the government after reports surfaced over its use of disinformation units used to monitor lockdown critics.

An ICO spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times that it is looking to speak to the government after recent information came “to light” about its “broader use of personal data in this area.”

The ICO has responsibility for regulating the use of personal data.  It provided the Cabinet Office with advice on “disinformation” gathering in 2021.

In January, the UK government confirmed that it had monitored lockdown critics including Conservative MPs and journalists on social media platforms via its disinformation units.

Documents were obtained by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, which revealed that Conservative MPs and journalists had warranted attention from the government’s Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU).

Well-known figures included Conservative MP David Davis, Lockdown Sceptics founder Toby Young, talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, and Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens.

However, there has been a renewed interest after a recent series of articles in the Telegraph, claimed that said that one of CDU’s main functions was “passing information over” to companies such as Facebook and Twitter to “encourage… the swift takedown” of posts.

The government claims that it is not the CDU’s primary purpose to monitor for harmful content to flag to social media platforms.

Letter

On Friday, Dr Ros Jones, a retired consultant paediatrician and member of HART, told The Epoch Times that her letter, jointly authored by several prominent scientists, raising concerns about the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine’s rollout for children, was reported to the government’s disinformation unit.

HART is a group that was set up with doctors, academics, scientists, and more to share concerns about policy and guidance recommendations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jones told The Epoch Times she believed that Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s office could have forwarded the letter.

The Epoch Times has not been able to verify if Whitty sent the letter. Whitty did not respond to a request for comment.

Headmaster Mike Fairclough also found out this year that he had his social media posts monitored by the government disinformation unit for questioning the effects of lockdown and masking on children as well as the mRNA vaccine rollout.

“It’s chilling with regards to censorship of free speech and the mislabelling of misinformation as that letter was factually accurate and in the public interest,” Fairclough told The Epoch Times in response to Jones’ surveillance.

CDU

The CDU was part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, which leads the UK government’s operational response to “domestic disinformation threats online.” In February 2023 it moved to the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology.

During the pandemic, the government used different units including the CDU, the Rapid Response Unit (RRU), and the Government Information Cell. Each had roles in “tackling harmful narratives online,” and monitoring and flagging “disinformation” content to social media companies.

The RRU was disbanded in August 2022.

The CDU is focused “on helping the government understand online disinformation narratives and understand attempts to artificially manipulate the information environment.”

The British Army’s information warfare machine, the 77th, which has conducted operations against both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, collated tweets from British citizens about COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic, passing them to the Cabinet Office, though it is understood that this ended by late 2021.

An ICO spokesman told The Epoch Times by email: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICO spoke with the Cabinet Office about the Government Communications Service’s monitoring of the impact of Government messaging and identifying of disinformation.

“The ICO concluded our enquiries in September 2021 and provided advice to the Cabinet Office on the matter, including around what data was being gathered, and what privacy information was being provided.

“Following the information that has now come to light about the government’s broader use of personal data in this area, we'll be speaking with the Cabinet Office to learn more about how people’s information is being used.”

A DSIT government spokesperson told The Epoch Times by email: “The Information Commissioner’s Office looked into the RRU’s use of personal data as part of a wider-ranging review of Government data use in 2021. It concluded that no formal action was necessary.

He said that at “no prior point has the ICO investigated the CDU.”

“We welcome any further informal discussions with the ICO, as we do with any use of information across the government. Neither the RRU nor the CDU have ever targeted or focused on individuals, or compiled any data on them. Individuals were only ever referenced in much broader coverage reports which used publicly available media to summarise the public views on certain policies, or identify potential disinformation trends.”

The spokesman also referred to a recent fact sheet that was produced about the CDU.