Free Speech Fears as PM Launches “National Centre for Information Defence” to Wage War on “Untrue Narratives”

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Andy Burnham has announced plans for a new “National Centre for Information Defence” to fight so-called “disinformation” as he blamed Russia for “amplifying far Right narratives”, prompting fresh fears for free speech. GB News has more.

The Prime Minister, addressing the United Nations, announced the centre to improve “community cohesion” and prevent a “distorted and untrue narrative about Britain”.

He has ordered security chiefs to set up the quango, which will detect, attribute and disrupt “hostile information attacks” and “deepfakes” which hurt British interests.

It is initially being led out of the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with the new centre working alongside intelligence agencies, Government departments, the police and social media firms.

He told the UN there was no “national security without a strong, cohesive society”.

“That’s the starting point for everything we hold dear and everything we want to achieve,” he added.

“But the fact is that it has been under attack.”

Burnham then accused Russia of engaging in a “industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment”.

He added that Vladimir Putin’s men had used “every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fears”.

“They’ve used bots and fake websites,” the Prime Minister said. “Falsified newspaper articles and forged the branding of 28 British organisations – including universities and the BBC.

“They’ve amplified far Right narratives. And we have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 General Election.”

Russia has previously been accused of using illicitly-acquired documents about UK-US trade talks to try to influence the 2019 vote.

Burnham also claimed Moscow tried to “stoke tensions and unrest in the wake of horrific events”, describing the actions as “repulsive”.

Burnham also claimed Moscow tried to “stoke tensions and unrest in the wake of horrific events”, describing the actions as “repulsive”.

“In fact, Trump has already spoken out against these kinds of regulations, which will be used, of course, to control freedom of speech.”

Worth reading in full.

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7 Comments
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JohnK
JohnK
11 minutes ago

A re-organisation job in an existing department? After all, it takes one to know one, and there will be some in-house experts at publishing junk etc.

Jack the dog
Jack the dog
32 minutes ago

Our strong cohesive society, as was, has been attack for decades by millions of foreigners who want our stuff and by successive governments who have favoured their interests over ours.

That, burnham, is the real problem you thick, lying tw@t.

Gezza England
Gezza England
48 minutes ago

Who among us would trust a government on censorship when it quite clearly is prepared to incite a civil war with its own people over criminals who arrive illegally in this country as shown by its actions yesterday. The cost to the taxpayer of the massive police convoy to take the criminals into a life of cushy luxury while without a trace of irony – as you would expect from Far Left scum – the Guardian is bleating about poor households on housing benefit are finding the payouts coming up short. The latest scum to arrive will be costing taxpayers another £8bn.

Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
54 minutes ago

Clearly the fear of climate change is dissolving so we need a new ‘enemy at the gates’ to be scared of!

Cotfordtags
Cotfordtags
1 hour ago

I am a free thinker, with eyes and ears to see what is going on and assess what I believe and disbelieve. I don’t need a Government department to vet the information for me. I see an awful lot of rubbish on Substack and Guido. I know it’s rubbish because I go to other sources to assess the veracity. Most is from the left not the right. Strangely, I struggle to find anything here that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

This morning, GBNews was judged to be the most trusted TV channel for news and was instantly attacked by left wingers questioning its reporting (they obviously never watch it, because they would know how many socialists appear). It was also attacked for losing money, which is hilarious when you consider the evil campaigns waged against their advertisers, scaring off all but the most resilient. And where does that campaign of hate come from, not the right but that evil bunch of scumbags Hope Not Hate.

Just so Burnham knows, we can see the migrant boat crossings, we can see how they are housed, we feel the pain of energy bills, the cost of living, the level of taxation.… Read more »

DaveNI
DaveNI
1 hour ago

He told the UN there was no “national security without a strong, cohesive society”.”
So why do we pander to, and import members of, a parallel society which it clearly states has no allegiance to this country.

seawaves
seawaves
1 hour ago

i take it andy pandy will target the biased broadcaster first then. they are top of the tree with their lies.

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