Is Russia trying to spread fear with fake news?

‘It is part of the Russian toolbox’

MINISTERS last night set up a ‘counter-disinformation unit’ amid fears that states such as Russia are spreading fake news about coronavirus to create panic.

There is growing alarm in Whitehall that hostile state and non- state groups are exploiting the crisis sweeping the globe by peddling myths about the disease on social media.

Creating fears about shortages of products in shops to ‘spread uncertainty’ and undermine the West would be straight out of the ‘Russian toolbox’, one British official said.

A team of experts, brought together from across the Government, has been assembled to work with social media companies to protect the UK from false or manipulated information relating to coronavirus.

US officials have previously claimed that thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have launched a coordinated effort to spread alarm about Covid-19, the new form of coronavirus.

Details of the new unit came ahead of another meeting today of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee on the coronavirus outbreak. It will be updated on the current situation and assess possible measures for once the UK enter the ‘delay’ phase of the Government’s plan to tackle the outbreak.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: ‘Defending the country from misinformation and digital interference is a top priority.

‘As part of our ongoing work to tackle these threats we have brought together expert teams to make sure we can respond effectively should these threats be identified in relation to the spread of Covid-19.

‘ This work includes regular engagement with the social media companies, which are well placed to monitor interference and limit the spread of disinformation, and will make sure we are on the front foot to act if required.’

A statement from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said the unit will look at the potential extent, scope and impact of disinformation which is being spread on social media platforms. Disinformation is distributed either for the purposes of causing harm, or for political, personal or financial gain.

A British official said there were fears that countries such as Russia could exploit the crisis and spread fake news, as they did during the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury, to ‘sow the seeds of doubt’.

‘You’ve got to be on your guard,’ the official said. ‘It is not beyond the realms of possibility that they are using coronavirus for propaganda purposes, that is the Russians’ modus operandi.

‘It is part of the Russian toolbox – discredit the West in terms of how health care is responding and breed fear about how people are responding.’ The official said Russia

could be using social media to inflame fears about shops running out of products so people panic buy. Such a move would benefit the Russians because it ‘spreads uncertainty, sows the seeds of doubt’ and ‘undermines Western governments’.

However, a DCMS spokesman said the ‘counter- disinformation unit’ was about being ‘proactive’ rather than in response to any activity by states such as Russia.

In February US officials claimed thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts had launched a coordinated effort to spread alarm about the coronavirus. It was seen as an attempt to disrupt global efforts to fight the epidemic.

The ‘fake news’ campaign promoted conspiracy theories that the US was behind the outbreak.