Social media posts by former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption KC were among those flagged by units set up to counter disinformation during the pandemic, a major study of such government activity has revealed. In a report Ministry of Truth published yesterday, campaign group Big Brother Watch says the units were set up without a proper legal basis and are apparently still operating without accountability.

They include the British Army's 77th Brigade, originally formed to conduct information warfare against hostile powers, but which, according to a whistleblower, monitored British public opinion during the pandemic. Other units accused of 'spying on your speech' include the Cabinet Office Rapid Response Unit, the Counter Disinformation Unit, which is part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Home Office's Research, Intelligence and Communications Unit. 

‘These are now a permanent function of government,’ Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo said last night. The report raises concerns about the units' ability, working in tandem with web platforms, to suppress dissenting viewpoints as 'misinformation'. The report calls for the units to be shut down, citing evidence that they may be abusing 'trusted flagger' status to have lawful speech removed from social media. 

In a legal commentary to the report, Gavin Millar KC of Matrix Chambers raises concerns about the lack of a stated legal basis for the units' interference with the right to freedom of expression. While government departments have powers to act against online expression, for instance in the interests of national security or the protection of health and morals, the state must indicate which of these aims the interference is said to pursue. It must also show that the restriction is necessary in a democratic society, he said.

In many of the cases cited in the Big Brother report the interference is 'likely to have been unlawful', Millar concludes. He called on the government to 'make clear to parliament and the public the full extent of the activities of these units'. 

'We don’t see a clear statutory basis for what the state is doing,' Millar said last night. 'Suppressing disagreement with government policy is not a lawful aim.’ 

Carlo said the government had defended the units' activities saying they handled only publicly available data. Details of exchanges with social media platforms were kept secret on the basis that publication would 'give malign actors information about our abilities'.

Conservative MP David Davis told the launch event that he would put written questions to every department involved. 

 

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