Missed information

The government unit charged with identifying and rectifying false information and promoting trusted sources is strikingly cagey about its own operations. Sam Trendall reports

Despite the sustained efforts of parliamentarians and journalists, the government continues to withhold basic details about its Counter-Disinformation Unit. The secrecy around its work is maintained on the grounds of a need to protect government’s “relationship with social media platforms”, as well as a desire to “preserve a ‘safe space’ around ministers and government officials”, PublicTechnology can reveal.

The CDU was “stood up” in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in March 2020 with a remit to respond to false information about coronavirus circulating on social networks and other websites. According to the government, the unit had previously been activated to monitor online activity related to the European Parliament election and the UK general election that both took place in 2019.

The unit brought together resources from the Home Office, Foreign Office, Cabinet Office and the intelligence services. It is understood to have remained in operation and has been responsible for leading government’s response to disinformation – which is defined as the deliberate and malicious dissemination of false or misleading information with the intention to deceive people for political or financial reasons.

The CDU’s remit also includes responding to misinformation, which is described as the the inadvertent sharing of falsehoods, largely by members of the general public.

Since its creation, very little additional detail has been made available about the CDU or its work. There is no public information on the number of staff or funding for the unit, its management, the volume of disinformation being tackled, where this information has been published,