Emails disclosed in the US by Congressman Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, as part of an investigation into transnational censorship, reveal that officials within a Whitehall monitoring unit flagged social media posts to major platforms, warning that certain content was ‘exacerbating tensions’ during a period of widespread civil unrest.
The unit, the National Security and Online Information Team (NSOIT), operates within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) under the authority of minister Peter Kyle. Formerly known as the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU), it was established to monitor foreign influence campaigns but saw its remit expanded during the covid pandemic to include lawful domestic speech, including public health criticism and lockdown scepticism. Conservative MP David Davis was among several public figures cited in CDU files as ‘critical of the Government’ after questioning the mathematical reasoning behind Imperial College London’s pandemic modelling.
One of the messages
released by the US House Judiciary Committee was sent on August 3, 2024
– the worst weekend of the riots – and warned of ‘significant volumes
of anti-immigrant content’ as well as ‘concerning narratives about the
police and a “two-tier” system that we are seeing across the online
environment’. The email listed several examples of social media content,
including one said to ‘misrepresent the government’s response to
further a sense of division’. Although none of the posts was alleged to
breach the law, DSIT pressed TikTok to confirm ‘what content you are
seeing across your platform’ and ‘any measures you have taken in
response’, adding: ‘We’d be grateful if you could come back to us on
those two points as soon as you are able to.’...<<<Read More>>>....
