Labour’s Government is ramping up its online surveillance game – using AI to snoop on Brits’ social media posts in a move blasted as a threat to free speech.
According to the Telegraph a secretive £2.3 million project is being developed by Whitehall’s disinformation squad to track and flag posts it deems “problematic,” according to reports.
The controversial programme, run by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), is designed to hunt for “foreign interference,” deepfakes, and trending narratives online. But critics fear it’s a new tool to silence dissent.
The AI tool, dubbed the Counter Disinformation Data Platform (CDDP), is part of the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) – now rebranded under Labour as the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT). This shadowy unit has already come under fire for collecting files on journalists, academics and MPs who previously questioned policy during the pandemic.
‘MINISTRY OF TRUTH’ LIVES ON?
Privacy watchdogs and free speech campaigners have slammed the project as a major overreach.
Jake Hurfurt of Big Brother Watch told the Telegraph: “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 added: “NSOIT’s predecessor, the CDU, was caught tracking criticism from journalists, activists and even MPs in an assault on free speech. The Government is still trying to hide this unit in the shadows. There is a risk that the Ministry of Truth lives on.”
Records show that since 2021, more than £5.3 million has been spent on projects tracking so-called “disinformation” online – including monitoring posts about Covid-19 vaccines, climate change, and even Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s endorsement of alternative treatments for the virus.
Leaked documents reveal that disinformation teams have monitored posts about mask-wearing, cancer treatments, and 5G networks – raising fears that the AI could be used to target those who simply question the Labour government policy.
US BACKLASH LOOMS
The project has already sparked transatlantic concerns, with US Vice President JD Vance blasting European governments for threatening free speech at a recent security summit.
Toby Young of the Free Speech Union warned the plan is politically risky: “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.”
DSIT insists the platform will only track “themes and trends” rather than individuals and will focus on posts “which pose a threat to national security and public safety risk.”
A 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.”
Faculty AI, the tech firm building the platform, defended the project, saying: “Our democracy is under threat from hostile states and terrorists. We have a choice: sit back and let dangerous online narratives undermine national security, or protect people by assessing threats to their livelihoods.”
But campaigners remain unconvinced. With Labour’s AI spies lurking in the digital shadows, critics fear free speech in Britain is on borrowed time.
Worth reading in full in the Telegraph here.
This is what JD Vance was so eloquently talking about in Munich. To which our “intelligentsia” responded with sneers, condescension and outright lies, eg on silent prayer arrests.