Britain’s intellectual property minister has faced calls to shut down a “secret institution” accused of spying on lockdown critics, politicians, and journalists.
Viscount Camrose was forced to defend the government’s controversial Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU), claiming most of its work focused on hostile state threats to the UK.
On that basis, he told the House of Lords on Tuesday, its work could not be made public.
However, he offered to hold a private briefing with a delegation of peers to discuss the scope of the CDU.
Responding to a question from Lord Strasbourg on the surveillance activities of the secretive unit, Viscount Camrose said: “The unit is established within the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology. Its existence and mission, and indeed legal basis, for its activities are posted on Gov.uk.
“Because the great majority now of its activities are directed at overseas state actors hostile to our interests, we don’t share in public forum any operational details pertaining to the activity simply for fear of giving an advantage to our overseas adversaries.”
In January, the government confirmed that it had monitored COVID-19 pandemic critics, including Conservative MPs and journalists, on social media platforms via the CDU and other misinformation units.
Documents obtained by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch revealed that well-known figures included Tory MP David Davis, Lockdown Sceptics founder Toby Young, talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, and Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens were all monitored by the groups.
Social Media Censorship
Accusing the government of “weaponising” phrases such as “misinformation,” Baroness Fox asked the minister if the CDU had ever pressurised Big Tech “by proxy” to censor social media debate.He said the unit “advises” companies that “certain bits of content might or might not be adhering to their terms of service.”
In response, Tory peer Lord Lilley said: “Surely it is the job of politicians to put forward the truth and dispute what they consider to be unreasonable or disinformation with facts, reason, logic, and ridicule, not to have a secret institution, which should be closed down.”
Denying the unit was “secret,” Viscount Camrose was met with a round of laughter before telling the House he had “lost his thread of thought” and would provide a “satisfactory answer” at a later date.
Baroness Chakrabarti—one of the peers to have been monitored by CDU—told the minister she had “no idea” why she would be “a subject of investigation” by the group “despite having claimed no role in pro-Russian activity or anti-vaccine activity.”
Ms. Chakrabarti added, “So I am a little nervous about this, perhaps I could take up the noble viscount on his offer with a group of any others who feel a little bit uncomfortable about what we are hearing.”
Last month, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) confirmed to The Epoch Times it was to question the government over its use of disinformation units.
An ICO spokesperson said that it wanted 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.
COVID Critics Monitored
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, and 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 Brigade, which has conducted operations against both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, collated Twitter posts 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.
Those targeted by the CDU include Dr. Ros Jones, a retired consultant paediatrician and member of HART.
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.
Ms. Jones told The Epoch Times in June that a letter that she had jointly authored alongside several prominent scientists raising concerns about the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine rollout for children was reported to the government’s disinformation unit.
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.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas last month joined calls for an inquiry into the secretive unit, after discovering her criticism of the government over COVID-19 management and ministers’ dishonesty had been repeatedly logged in disinformation reports.
The politician called the monitoring of her posts a “staggering overreach” by the government.
“The right of citizens to share entirely valid and objective criticisms of government ministers without fear of the consequences is a cornerstone of our democracy, and must be protected,” she said.
“If these disinformation units focused their efforts on genuine disinformation, dangerous conspiracy theories, and foreign hostility, rather than my tweets, our politics might be in a better place.
“The CDU is clearly not fit for purpose, and a full investigation must be opened immediately.”
