The British government’s Counter Disinformation Unit repeatedly logged statements from a leftist Green Party MP during the Chinese coronavirus crisis, according to information obtained by the Big Brother Watch campaign group.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas was swept up in reports gathered by the UK government’s Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) and the now-defunct rapid response unit (RRU) media monitoring service, according to The Guardian newspaper.
The revelations, which were uncovered through a subject access request from Lucas and the privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, showed that the government had logged statements from the parliamentarian in an April 2020 report on “Covid mis/disinformation” over comments criticising the lack of pandemic preparation and how the government was purchasing medical equipment.
In another instance, statements from Lucas arguing that coronavirus vaccines should be given to struggling countries before booster shots were handed out to Britons were recorded by the since defunct media-monitoring Rapid Response Unit, which claimed that Lucas’s comments were akin to “vaccine hesitancy”.
Lucas, who is set to stand down from parliament before the next general election, accused the government of “staggering overreach” and has called for an investigation into the matter.
“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. If these disinformation units focussed their efforts on genuine disinformation, dangerous conspiracy theories and foreign hostility, rather than my tweets, our politics might be in a better place,” Lucas said.
“The CDU is clearly not fit for purpose, and a full investigation must be opened immediately.”
A government spokesman said: “The CDU tracks narratives using publicly available information — it has never monitored the activity of any individual and has a blanket ban on referring content from journalists and MPs to social media platforms [as harmful].
“Mentions in subject access requests are not evidence that the unit considered those references to be disinformation.”
In response to the surveillance of Lucas and others, the Big Brother Watch campaign group announced a crowdfunding effort to back legal action against the government’s targeting of people engaging in political dissent.
The director of the civil liberties group, Silkie Carlo said: “Whilst many would expect the government to counter foreign hostile disinformation, the Counter Disinformation Unit has suffered serious mission creep and has turned inwards, putting domestic dissent in its crosshairs. Given the serious lack of transparency and safeguards, the Unit is at risk of serving the interests of those with power rather than of our democracy.
“The CDU should be urgently suspended and subject to a full investigation.”
During the coronavirus crisis, the British government reportedly conspired with Big Tech firms such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter as well as with Artificial Intelligence companies to monitor and censor critics of the draconian lockdown regime imposed upon the public. According to reports, the nation’s publicly-funded broadcaster, the BBC, was also involved in meetings between the government and tech firms.
Last month, the broadcaster launched its own disinformation monitoring service, BBC Verify, to track alleged conspiracy theories and their supposed links to the “far-right” and “alternative media”. Breitbart London reported that BBC Verify’s flagship podcast, hosted by Disinformation and Social Media correspondent Marianna Spring, allegedly spread disinformation itself, making apparently false claims about conservative podcaster Carl Benjamin. The BBC has yet to respond to such allegations.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.