UK officials fear that their deep state has sprung a leak, with ministers suspecting that a civil servant is sending secret information to ex-Deputy PM-turned-Facebook bigwig Nick Clegg.
Government insiders are reportedly of the opinion that a member of Britain’s deep state has been leaking secret information to Nick Clegg, an ex-Deputy Prime Minister of the UK who now holds a prime position within Zuckerberg’s tech multinational Meta — formerly known as Facebook. Facebook denies the claims.
It comes shortly after government plans to clamp down on “legal but harmful” content online was leaked to The Financial Times, with one tech insider comparing the leaked proposals to something that would be in place within Communist China.
According to a report by The Times, government ministers are now of the opinion that such information got out through a civil servant who is leaking information to Clegg.
They also reportedly suspect that the leaker and Clegg knew each other from back when the recently promoted Facebook bigwig was serving as Deputy PM within Whitehall.
Alarms were supposedly raised regarding a possible leak after Clegg referenced classified information regarding the forthcoming “Online Safety Bill” during a meeting with government officials back in 2020.
A leak inquiry has since been launched, with one Whitehall source reportedly saying that they believe Clegg is the recipient of the government information.
This is despite a Facebook representative declaring that any suggestion their newly appointed President of Global Affairs was soliciting documents from insiders was “absurd and false”.
While deep state officials scramble to find the leak in the veritable sieve that is the British government, others outside of Whitehall have found themselves far more concerned about the content of the leak, rather than how it got out.
Under the Conservative government’s plans, tech companies will be forced to censor online content deemed “legal but harmful” under the pretence of making the internet safer for children.
Online companies will also be put under the tight control of the UK’s media regulator, Ofcom, who outright prohibits the use of “hate speech” on broadcasts.
The regulator defines hast speech as “all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify hatred based on intolerance on the grounds of disability, ethnicity, social origin, gender, sex, gender reassignment, nationality, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, colour, genetic features, language, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth or age”.
Companies who fail to abide by their obligation to the UK regulator will be liable to fines of up to 10 per cent of their global income, while tech bosses will also find themselves criminally liable themselves — facing fines and prison sentences — should they refuse to comply with the regulator.
Both the UK’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel, and Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, have backed the legislation, saying the new restrictions are necessary in order to protect children.
“There is lots of content on social media that is illegal and harmful to children,” one government source is reported to have said. “We want to give Ofcom powers to require companies to mitigate harm on their platforms.”
However, those within the industry have expressed concern regarding the new measures, with one going so far as to compare the plans to something that would be implemented in Communist China.
“This seems to go significantly beyond what is done in democratic countries around the world,” said one unnamed industry insider. “It feels a bit closer to what they are doing in China.”
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