MP flagged by disinformation unit for calling Boris Johnson a liar

Jun 19, 2023 at 12:02 AM

An MP is asking for an investigation right into a authorities unit created to battle misinformation – after she was logged by it for calling Boris Johnson a liar.

Former Green Party chief Caroline Lucas was reportedly flagged a number of instances by the counter-disinformation unit (CDU) after tweets that criticised ministers and authorities coverage over Covid. She stated her inclusion in a collection of experiences about ‘Covid mis/disinformation’ and ‘vaccine hesitancy’ amounted to “staggering overreach” by ministers.

A marketing campaign group has claimed it confirmed the Government “dangerously blurred the lines between genuine disinformation and legitimate political dissent”. However, a authorities spokesperson stated the inclusion in these experiences didn’t imply somebody was suspected of disinformation. And it stated the CDU does not report content material from journalists and MPs to social media platforms.

The CDU was arrange in 2019 as a part of the Department of Culture. It is now throughout the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The requires an investigation within the CDU come after Big Brother Watch and Ms Lucas issued a topic entry request for particulars held on her by the CDU and the now-scrapped fast response unit (RRU) media monitoring service. The request discovered that Ms Lucas had been included in a CDU “Covid mis/disinformation report” after she was scathing in regards to the authorities’s buying of medical tools through the Covid pandemic.

A tweet the place she known as Dominic Raab “arrogant, complacent and patronising” after he stood in for Boris Johnson throughout Prime Minister’s Questions was additionally flagged in 2020, as was a tweet the place she claimed the UK Government was poorly ready for a pandemic.

And, forward of the native elections in 2021, her identify was added to a CDU report on “mis/disinformation narratives” after she accused Boris Johnson of being a liar. However, authorities points say that lots of the examples come from the RRU – which was closed final yr – they usually say it was largely only a media-monitoring unit.

Nonetheless, Ms Lucas – who has stated she’s going to stand down as an MP on the subsequent election – has criticised the CDU. She advised The Guardian: “This is simply staggering overreach from a government which has had, at the very least, a socially distanced relationship with the truth on multiple occasions in recent years.”

“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 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.”

Big Brother Watch’s director Silkie Carlo echoed the criticism levelled by Ms Lucas. Ms Carlo stated it confirmed the Government had “dangerously blurred the lines between genuine disinformation and legitimate political dissent”.

Ms Carlo continued: “It’s significantly alarming to see an elected MP’s criticisms of the federal government logged in experiences on so-called ‘election misinformation’, which might then be topic to essentially the most harsh restrictions, together with round election intervals.”

However, a authorities spokesperson stated: “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.

“Mentions in subject access requests are not evidence that the unit considered those references to be disinformation. We are happy to discuss the work of the CDU with any parliamentarian should they wish to find out more about the important work of the unit.”