The Government is planning to use Artificial Intelligence to monitor all citizen's Social Media posts. The Government’s controversial disinformation team is reportedly developing a secretive AI programme to trawl through social media looking for “concerning” posts it deems problematic so it can take “action” to rectify.
A FoI request revealed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) recently awarded a £2.3 million contract to Faculty AI for an AI programme that is able to monitor every single social media account simultaneously. The monitoring software can reportedly detect “foreign interference”, deep-fakes and “social media narratives”.
The platform is part of the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) which was set up in 2019 and was one of the departments that was actively turned on to it's own people during the planmenic. The department amassed thousands of files on UK citizens who were critical of the Covid-19 response. The STASI style unit not only targeted journalists and academics who were not following the script, thousands of ordinary citizens also because targets for the 'crime' of questioning the Government response.
Since then the unit has been renamed the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT), and comes under the 'intelligence' umbrella which has allowed it to avoid public scrutiny.
DSIT said the new AI tool, called the Counter Disinformation Data Platform (CDDP), is looking solely for posts “which pose a threat to national security or a public safety risk”.
However, heavily redacted documents obtained by Big Brother Watch through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests show that the Government is reserving the right to also use the platform for other issues.
An executive summary for the project states: “While the CDDP has a current national security focus the tool has the ability to be pivoted to focus on any priority area.”
Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch, warns that the Government is still refusing to publish “huge swathes of information” about the platform while dodging questions from Parliament and the Intelligence and Security Committee.
“Whitehall must be transparent about how its ‘Counter Disinformation Unit’ plans to use AI to monitor social media, when millions of pounds of public money have been poured into its operation,” he said.
“NSOIT’s predecessor, the Counter Disinformation Unit, was caught tracking criticism from journalists, activists and even MPs in an assault on free speech, but the Government is still trying to hide this unit in the shadows. There is a risk that the Ministry of Truth lives on.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and with vast amounts of taxpayers’ cash on the line, it is time for the Government to be clear on how it monitors social media, and whether it is pressuring social media companies to censor the public’s lawful speech.”
Since 2021, contracts show the Government has spent more than £5.3 million on developing the CDDP and other disinformation projects including “detecting coronavirus disinformation” and “analysing climate related mis/disinformation on social media”.
FoI documents reveal counter-disinformation teams are concerned about “anti-vaxx rhetoric” and have taken an interest in social media posts “criticising Covid-19 vaccines”.
The teams are also looking into those posting about cancer treatments, mask wearing, and the 5G phone network. Documents also show officials were concerned about Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s endorsement of the lupus drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid – a drug that in September was proven by Oxford University to reduce symptoms of the virus.
A recent report on the CDDP – disclosed via FoI – shows the platform would be used by analysts to “find the most concerning posts” so they can be reported to “policymakers and ops teams on what may require action”.
It comes after JD Vance, the US vice-president, launched a scathing attack on the British Government and its European counterparts at the Munich Security Conference last week, warning that “basic liberties” such as free speech, were under threat.
JD Vance said British and European ‘basic liberties’ such as free speech were under threat Credit: Matthias Schrader/AP. Lord Young of the Free Speech Union said: “To scale up the British arm of the censorship-industrial complex at a time when it’s being dismantled on the other side of the Atlantic is politically unwise, to put it mildly.
“It’s particularly tin-eared given that the social media platforms that will be targeted by this new robo-censor are all American-owned. “To the Trump-Vance administration this will look like another attempt to ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’, the self-professed agenda of a pro-censorship lobby group founded by Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.”
Lord Young has said use of the new ‘robo-censor’ is politically ‘tin-eared’ as many of the affected social media platforms are US-owned Credit: Guy Corbishley/Alamy Stock Photo
DSIT said that once content was flagged, officials would refer posts back to major platforms who could decide what action to take about the content. The Government said that it respected freedom of expression and would only monitor “themes and trends”, not individuals.
However past Subject Access Requests have revealed that the CDU and their contractors produced reports on mainstream commentators and experts for criticising government policy.
Dr Alex de Figueiredo, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was identified as a potential source of misinformation for querying whether all children needed to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
The activities of Prof Carl Heneghan, the Oxford epidemiologist who was one of the first to question the plandemic was also monitored by the unit, as well as Molly Kingsley, whose 'crime' was to set up a campaign to keep schools open during the pandemic.
A Department of Science, Innovation and Technology spokesman said: “This tool assists officials working to tackle online disinformation that poses a risk to national security and public safety – a strictly limited remit set by ministers – by monitoring broad patterns in publicly available content, not individuals.
In a telling response the faculty spokesman said “We make no apologies for safely, legally and transparently using the latest technology to track the sort of disinformation which can result in violent disorder on our streets, as we saw in the wake of the horrific Southport attack.” Adding “Our democracy is under threat from hostile states and terrorists."
They then claimed that it was all innocent and above board saying: “The tool does not analyse or target individuals, nor does it determine what is or is not disinformation.”
Related:
Comentarios