The House of Lords reports on Threats to UK democracy: Disinformation, foreign interference and declining public trust:
Social media and other technologies have made it easier, quicker and cheaper for foreign powers to spread false information online aimed at undermining UK democracy. Such disinformation campaigns are one type of interference operation. In parallel, researchers have noted a link between declining public trust and societal polarisation, which can be exacerbated by online discourse. This briefing provides introductory reading to these issues, including recent reports and government announcements.
Of course, as The Guardian reports, Russia is the main target of this new agency.
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,” he said.
“Forged the branding of 28 British organisations – including universities and the BBC. They’ve amplified far-right narratives. And we have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 general election."
This is all cobblers and the PM knows it.
Universities are struggling with wokery-pokery, fantasists lying about their qualifications and plagiarism in PhDs.
The BBC is not suffering from Russian interference but the decline in people willing to pay the annual license tax for their agendized content.
The person who interfered with the 2019 election was some British official with an insecure email account that was mined for all sorts of documents by hackers.
According to the Mayor of Manchester: certain groups of people who felt their own lives were not improving may be more vulnerable to disinformation and deepfakes.
In other words most of the UK then.
'Declining public trust and societal polarisation' can hardly be blamed on Russia and 'online discourse' but on:
- the failure of successive governments to tackle illegal immigration
- the constant attempts by remoaners to force the UK back into the EU
- unlimited funding for Ukraine but not for serious issues that need tackling in the UK
- continued undermining of free speech in the UK and labeling dissent as 'right-wing' (unless it relates to Israel when it is 'anti-semitic')
- a roller coaster of inept and unelected prime ministers