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Is the Government spying on you? A secretive disinformation unit has no place in a democracy

Big Brother isn't protecting you. (Big Brother)

Big Brother isn't protecting you. (Big Brother)


January 31, 2023   4 mins

“Government cracks down on spread of false coronavirus information online,” announced a UK Government press release on March 30, 2020. “Specialist units” are tackling dangerous misinformation, disinformation, criminal fraudsters, and “false and misleading narratives”, we were told.

But, as Big Brother Watch revealed on Sunday, the activities of these units went far beyond refuting claims such as “gargling warm water cures Covid”. The Counter Disinformation Unit, first used in 2019 to monitor potential interference in elections, was intended to combat deliberately misleading online content. In March 2020, however, its scope was extended to include misinformation and to work even more closely with social media platforms. This may not be an official censorship regime — departments have a hotline to these platforms to ask that material is removed — but it is a very easy way for the Government to reduce the spread of posts it disapproves of.

Based in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the CDU has also been active in relation to COP26 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Freedom of Information requests and questions from MPs have failed to discover its budget or how many people it employs. The Big Brother Watch report has, however, identified a number of contracts with firms which specialise in using AI and automated systems to detect “harmful and illegal content” online.

During the first months of the pandemic, both medical theories and government policies were highly contested. Epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse, a member of Sage, criticised lockdowns as a policy response to Covid as early as August 2020, while a number of experts openly disagreed over the assumptions underlying the computer models used to make policy decisions, including the Imperial College model used to justify the first national lockdown in March 2020. Nevertheless, public questioning of Covid policies, or close examination of the scientific evidence, was enough to earn an appearance on the weekly CDU report. Conservative MP David Davis was among those cited as “critical of the Government” after he questioned, on Twitter and in the Daily Telegraph, the mathematical reasoning of the Imperial model.

Similarly, when vaccines against Covid were created, the CDU worked to counter a number of falsehoods, including the conspiracy that they make people (especially those from ethnic minorities) infertile, or the fanciful idea that they would turn people into monkeys. But the CDU didn’t stop there. Included in its file on “vaccine sceptics”, for instance, were many who objected not to vaccines, but to policy measures such as vaccine passports or mandated vaccination for care workers. Here, a matter of public debate was deemed beyond discussion — and turned into a target of countermeasures by a state unit that is not even subject to scrutiny by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee.

Nor is the CDU the only unit engaged in this kind of narrative-management. The Cabinet Office has its own Rapid Response Unit (RRU), set up in 2018 and focused since 2020 on rebutting or removing (via social media platforms) “false and misleading narratives” about coronavirus. It monitors both social and traditional media, reporting on engagement with narratives and countering (or suppressing) those it deems harmful.

The RRU also uses media monitoring services which can report on audience demographics as well as content and sentiment analysis. Even sharing news articles critical of government Covid policies was enough to get an RRU flag. The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, for example, appeared in RRU analysis, after voicing concerns about the effectiveness of localised restrictions. Expert criticism of data used in public briefings, personal testimonies of the impact of anti-Covid restrictions, and even jokes about the complexity of travel rules, were all included on RRU lists. Here, the scope of RRU activities goes far beyond false information to include opinions that question or contradict government policies. Again, it’s hard to see this as misinformation, let alone disinformation.

Yet for the Government, this was war. According to a whistleblower from the 77th Brigade, normally the British Army’s cyber-warfare unit, extra personnel were recruited to monitor social media for keywords — ostensibly looking for accounts that might be foreign agents spreading disinformation, but with no measures in place to ensure they were “not being directed at the UK population”.

Suggested reading
Is the Government spying on you?

By Freddie Sayers

The whistleblower claims that screenshots of social media posts were collected and sent to the Cabinet Office. “We learned… that the Government were very keen on hearing what the public thought about their Covid-19 response and how scared people were,” said “AB”. “However, these posts did not contain information that was untrue or co-ordinated — it was simply fear and domestic dissent.”

The UK is not the only country to invoke the spectre of disinformation to seek to control public conversations. Greece passed a law against spreading false information in 2021, with a penalty of five years in prison, while Malaysia used emergency powers to pass a “fake news” law imposing jail terms for anyone spreading “wholly or partly false” information about either the pandemic or the state of emergency itself. Elsewhere, Turkey passed a law in October last year which threatens those who spread misleading news with prison, and social media platforms with fines for failure to remove content or disclose a user’s identity. Arrests have already been made.

But, as the wide-ranging activities of the UK’s CDU, the RRU and even the 77th Brigade reveal, allowing governments to define what counts as disinformation and misinformation is a slippery slope. As they extend their powers beyond falsifiable facts to policy debates, and even narratives, there is no limit to who can find themselves under scrutiny.

Throughout the pandemic the Government displayed a woeful lack of trust in the population to make sensible decisions, to act in a public-spirited manner, and to understand complex and changing information about a novel disease. Suppression of dissent and discussion is a symptom of that low opinion of the public. It’s the same paternalism that suffuses the Online Safety Bill: the politicians offering to keep us safe online by requiring technology companies to exercise a poorly defined “duty of care” are the same politicians working with those same companies to remove critics of its policies from the public square.

Government departments cracking down on false coronavirus information to protect us from dangerous falsehoods and malicious conspiracy theories? Don’t take their word for it. It’s Fake News.


Timandra Harkness presents the BBC Radio 4 series, FutureProofing and How To Disagree. Her book, Big Data: Does Size Matter? is published by Bloomsbury Sigma.

TimandraHarknes

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J Bryant
J Bryant
1 year ago

This is the second or third article/podcast I’ve encountered today discussing the UK surveillance problem. But nowhere have I seen proposals for dealing with the problem.
Are the army and civil service units performing the surveillance truly beyond all legal or parliamentary review as suggested in this article? If so (and I find that hard to believe) there should be a push to amend existing legislation to subject them to appropriate scrutiny.
Might Unherd consider commissioning an article reviewing the legality of the actions of these units?
The real problem here, imo, is the same problem we see in connection with cancel culture and the imposition of the woke agenda by the civil service, employers, schools, etc. People are aware of the problem but there’s no general sense of outrage; there’s no vehement push back against these illiberal activities. If we behave like “sheeple” then we can expect to be treated as such.

Elliott Bjorn
Elliott Bjorn
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

”But nowhere have I seen proposals for dealing with the problem.”

Dealing with the problem? Come on man, no one plans to deal with this problem……. They won. To the Deep State it is us that are the problem. 77th Brigade are the answers.

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Considering people died through believing covid misinformation spread on social media perhaps there is some justification to suppress such content during the crisis.

Rob N
Rob N
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

An awful lot more died either directly or indirectly from people believing or following the official narrative; about ‘safe and effective’ for example.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

If you need to shut people up, you don’t have an argument. The world’s governments, medical institutions, and pharmaceutical companies colluded on the Chinese corona virus, lied about all of it – from its origins to its treatment – and made unimaginable piles of cash. Millions of vulnerable people died. The thing was war gamed – Event 201 – in October 2019 to test population control and reaction. These are facts. That people know it is what government is attempting to smash, er, suppress.

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago

Facts don’t need to be suppressed. If for example ethnic minorities are vaccine hesitant because of misinformation then should that not be addressed?

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

I have found that it is the public health “authorities” themselves who fervently promote the idea of “minority (which one/s?)” vaccine hesitancy. Producing endless studies and PR campaigns on the subject has proven to be a lucrative “side hustle” and a jobs program for graduates in the DIE field. Meanwhile it’s obvious that the black underclass for example, allegedly vaccine hesitant for historical reasons, tends to be ignorant of the relevant history such as the Tuskegee experiment.

At the same time, the same health authorities claim that race is a construct and irrelevant to providing health care. (I believe there is an Unherd post in this subject.) Against the wishes of minorities, who often prefer a physician of their same race.

Is it any wonder that these health authorities require immense propaganda operations to persuade anyone of anything?

In reality minorities have the same good reasons to refuse the Woo Hahn Phlugh shot as anyone else.

Andrew Morgan
Andrew Morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

Who’re you happy to determine fact from misinformation for you? Presumably not ethnic minorities in this case.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

What point are you trying to make? That ethnic minorities are too stupid to make up their own minds?

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

I have found that it is the public health “authorities” themselves who fervently promote the idea of “minority (which one/s?)” vaccine hesitancy. Producing endless studies and PR campaigns on the subject has proven to be a lucrative “side hustle” and a jobs program for graduates in the DIE field. Meanwhile it’s obvious that the black underclass for example, allegedly vaccine hesitant for historical reasons, tends to be ignorant of the relevant history such as the Tuskegee experiment.

At the same time, the same health authorities claim that race is a construct and irrelevant to providing health care. (I believe there is an Unherd post in this subject.) Against the wishes of minorities, who often prefer a physician of their same race.

Is it any wonder that these health authorities require immense propaganda operations to persuade anyone of anything?

In reality minorities have the same good reasons to refuse the Woo Hahn Phlugh shot as anyone else.

Andrew Morgan
Andrew Morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

Who’re you happy to determine fact from misinformation for you? Presumably not ethnic minorities in this case.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

What point are you trying to make? That ethnic minorities are too stupid to make up their own minds?

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago

Facts don’t need to be suppressed. If for example ethnic minorities are vaccine hesitant because of misinformation then should that not be addressed?

James Stangl
James Stangl
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

And in the USA, the federal government refuses to declare the “crisis” as over, and relinquish their emergency powers. How convenient.

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

No, no one “died through believing COVID misinformation.” Though I’m not calling for a ban on your comments.

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

There were dozens of cases if you look them up. If you don’t like my comments then get back to your echo chamber

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

There were dozens of cases if you look them up. If you don’t like my comments then get back to your echo chamber

Rob N
Rob N
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

An awful lot more died either directly or indirectly from people believing or following the official narrative; about ‘safe and effective’ for example.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

If you need to shut people up, you don’t have an argument. The world’s governments, medical institutions, and pharmaceutical companies colluded on the Chinese corona virus, lied about all of it – from its origins to its treatment – and made unimaginable piles of cash. Millions of vulnerable people died. The thing was war gamed – Event 201 – in October 2019 to test population control and reaction. These are facts. That people know it is what government is attempting to smash, er, suppress.

James Stangl
James Stangl
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

And in the USA, the federal government refuses to declare the “crisis” as over, and relinquish their emergency powers. How convenient.

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

No, no one “died through believing COVID misinformation.” Though I’m not calling for a ban on your comments.

j watson
j watson
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Why don’t you write to the politicians who can potentially do something this. Not often an UnHerd article makes me do that, but fired off letter to local MP this AM about this. Took 10mins.
Remember DCMS part responsible here and Sec of State have been Dorries -21-22; Dowden 20-21; and Morgan 19-20, (the revolving door doesn’t help). And obviously above them during this period was Johnson.
Oversight provided by the ISC – Parliaments Intelligence and Security Cmttee. It sets it’s own agenda so can decide to almost immediately ask questions. Julian Lewis chairs and well respected. Not a Govt stooge in general. Has an ex General and Admiral in it’s membership too. Whether that’s a good thing though remains to be seen. Obviously sometimes hearings are subject to Official Secrets Act and cannot be in public, but the Cmttee has our elected representatives and they can make judgments. I’ve asked my MP is this Cmtee investigating this.

Last edited 1 year ago by j watson
Iris Violet
Iris Violet
1 year ago
Reply to  j watson

I would agree but Inhave given up in writing to my (Tory) MP. I did on several occasions over the past two years and her replies made it all the more clear that she would not stand up for freedom if her life depended on it.

Iris Violet
Iris Violet
1 year ago
Reply to  j watson

I would agree but Inhave given up in writing to my (Tory) MP. I did on several occasions over the past two years and her replies made it all the more clear that she would not stand up for freedom if her life depended on it.

Elliott Bjorn
Elliott Bjorn
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

”But nowhere have I seen proposals for dealing with the problem.”

Dealing with the problem? Come on man, no one plans to deal with this problem……. They won. To the Deep State it is us that are the problem. 77th Brigade are the answers.

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Considering people died through believing covid misinformation spread on social media perhaps there is some justification to suppress such content during the crisis.

j watson
j watson
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Why don’t you write to the politicians who can potentially do something this. Not often an UnHerd article makes me do that, but fired off letter to local MP this AM about this. Took 10mins.
Remember DCMS part responsible here and Sec of State have been Dorries -21-22; Dowden 20-21; and Morgan 19-20, (the revolving door doesn’t help). And obviously above them during this period was Johnson.
Oversight provided by the ISC – Parliaments Intelligence and Security Cmttee. It sets it’s own agenda so can decide to almost immediately ask questions. Julian Lewis chairs and well respected. Not a Govt stooge in general. Has an ex General and Admiral in it’s membership too. Whether that’s a good thing though remains to be seen. Obviously sometimes hearings are subject to Official Secrets Act and cannot be in public, but the Cmttee has our elected representatives and they can make judgments. I’ve asked my MP is this Cmtee investigating this.

Last edited 1 year ago by j watson
J Bryant
J Bryant
1 year ago

This is the second or third article/podcast I’ve encountered today discussing the UK surveillance problem. But nowhere have I seen proposals for dealing with the problem.
Are the army and civil service units performing the surveillance truly beyond all legal or parliamentary review as suggested in this article? If so (and I find that hard to believe) there should be a push to amend existing legislation to subject them to appropriate scrutiny.
Might Unherd consider commissioning an article reviewing the legality of the actions of these units?
The real problem here, imo, is the same problem we see in connection with cancel culture and the imposition of the woke agenda by the civil service, employers, schools, etc. People are aware of the problem but there’s no general sense of outrage; there’s no vehement push back against these illiberal activities. If we behave like “sheeple” then we can expect to be treated as such.

Stephen Walsh
Stephen Walsh
1 year ago

It’s going to get worse. Keir Starmer has made hysterical attacks on “misinformation” at PMQs and elsewhere, including smearing Telegram as the “app of choice for extremists” and demanding criminal sanctions. In reality Telegram has been a lifeline for the oppressed people of Russia and Belarus. Authoritarian regimes like Turkey are inspired and enabled to suppress free speech by such rhetoric and censorship in the West. Meanwhile surveillance technology developed in China is deployed against western populations. The political left, and increasingly authoritarian young people, can apparently see nothing wrong in this, once “gammon” opinions they despise are the ones suppressed.

Rocky Martiano
Rocky Martiano
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephen Walsh

You can add Iran to that list of oppressed peoples for whom Telegram is a lifeline.
Starmer et al have no lessons to give anyone about disinformation; the cynical surveillance state first revealed by Snowden in the US now has it’s equivalent in the UK.

Rocky Martiano
Rocky Martiano
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephen Walsh

You can add Iran to that list of oppressed peoples for whom Telegram is a lifeline.
Starmer et al have no lessons to give anyone about disinformation; the cynical surveillance state first revealed by Snowden in the US now has it’s equivalent in the UK.

Stephen Walsh
Stephen Walsh
1 year ago

It’s going to get worse. Keir Starmer has made hysterical attacks on “misinformation” at PMQs and elsewhere, including smearing Telegram as the “app of choice for extremists” and demanding criminal sanctions. In reality Telegram has been a lifeline for the oppressed people of Russia and Belarus. Authoritarian regimes like Turkey are inspired and enabled to suppress free speech by such rhetoric and censorship in the West. Meanwhile surveillance technology developed in China is deployed against western populations. The political left, and increasingly authoritarian young people, can apparently see nothing wrong in this, once “gammon” opinions they despise are the ones suppressed.

DenialARiverIn Islington
DenialARiverIn Islington
1 year ago

Well, the BBC has been a disinformation unit for the past decade. Perhaps you should start with that?

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago

It goes back further than that.
I can distinctly recall the change in tone during the First Gulf War in the early 1990s, when instead of reportage the news started to fill up with opinions about legitimacy, and every single minor setback in the progress to oust Saddam from Kuwait became the headline.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago
Reply to  Steve Murray

Edit (since Unherd have now started curtailing editing of original comments…):
Legitimacy can be challenged via documentary, with full contextual analysis. But no, it was done as part of the headline news. The BBC News website is now an exercise in undermining via the use of language.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago
Reply to  Steve Murray

Edit (since Unherd have now started curtailing editing of original comments…):
Legitimacy can be challenged via documentary, with full contextual analysis. But no, it was done as part of the headline news. The BBC News website is now an exercise in undermining via the use of language.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago

“false and misleading narratives”?
Would this include stating that a man is a woman?

Bruce Edgar
Bruce Edgar
1 year ago

Yes, the BBC, NPR, NYT, DW (Deutsche World), CNN and all the rest are agents of disinformation.
But this is an ancient phenomenon for gaining power over people. Consider Catholicism and Protestant sects, for example. The Pope and Bishops have been lying about things for nearly 2000 years: A god who has a Son that was carried to term by a human mother (visited by an angel late at night); or the existence of Hell and Heaven; of the absurdity that humans were “created” in the image and likeness of god, and not the other way around.
Remember. Faith is defined as the ability to believe in something for which no scientific evidence exists. The bottom line: culture has engineered a variety of means by which people can be misled, and threatened for apostasy. One large protection racket that requires surrender to dogma, and that promotes an infantile dependency.
Anyone who can believe the nonsense cited above will be able to believe anything. Or as EO Wilson said: human kind evolved to have a ridiculously easy indoctrinability.

Last edited 1 year ago by Bruce Edgar
Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago

It goes back further than that.
I can distinctly recall the change in tone during the First Gulf War in the early 1990s, when instead of reportage the news started to fill up with opinions about legitimacy, and every single minor setback in the progress to oust Saddam from Kuwait became the headline.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago

“false and misleading narratives”?
Would this include stating that a man is a woman?

Bruce Edgar
Bruce Edgar
1 year ago

Yes, the BBC, NPR, NYT, DW (Deutsche World), CNN and all the rest are agents of disinformation.
But this is an ancient phenomenon for gaining power over people. Consider Catholicism and Protestant sects, for example. The Pope and Bishops have been lying about things for nearly 2000 years: A god who has a Son that was carried to term by a human mother (visited by an angel late at night); or the existence of Hell and Heaven; of the absurdity that humans were “created” in the image and likeness of god, and not the other way around.
Remember. Faith is defined as the ability to believe in something for which no scientific evidence exists. The bottom line: culture has engineered a variety of means by which people can be misled, and threatened for apostasy. One large protection racket that requires surrender to dogma, and that promotes an infantile dependency.
Anyone who can believe the nonsense cited above will be able to believe anything. Or as EO Wilson said: human kind evolved to have a ridiculously easy indoctrinability.

Last edited 1 year ago by Bruce Edgar
DenialARiverIn Islington
DenialARiverIn Islington
1 year ago

Well, the BBC has been a disinformation unit for the past decade. Perhaps you should start with that?

R Wright
R Wright
1 year ago

In 2010 the British public voted for a small state. In 2023 this is what we have instead. Conservatism has become an embarrassing joke.

AL Crowe
AL Crowe
1 year ago
Reply to  R Wright

It’s not really Conservatism at this point though is it? It long ago got absorbed into the homogenous blob of authoritarian neo-Globalism that every other party in Western Europe is in. Hence the trouble with voting our way out of it, when every box on the voting slip may as well say “more of the same” voting has become nothing more than a meaningless tradition.

j watson
j watson
1 year ago
Reply to  R Wright

You’d forgotten we got a Conservative/Liberal coalition in 2010. 65% of electorate voted. In fact Lab/Liberals had more seats in total but Clegg did deal with Cameron as we know. At best probably Tories got c30% of total electorate, probably bit less. Furthermore the reasons behind why folks vote the way they do isn’t disclosed. Will be multiple reasons. Wanting a smaller state ‘possibly’ but one.
So quite how you determine the Public voted for a small state in 2010 isn’t clear, but your subsequent disappointment may be explained by that expectation.
I suspect overall Public wants good comprehensive public services provided as cheaply as poss, but again only a guess.

Last edited 1 year ago by j watson
AL Crowe
AL Crowe
1 year ago
Reply to  R Wright

It’s not really Conservatism at this point though is it? It long ago got absorbed into the homogenous blob of authoritarian neo-Globalism that every other party in Western Europe is in. Hence the trouble with voting our way out of it, when every box on the voting slip may as well say “more of the same” voting has become nothing more than a meaningless tradition.

j watson
j watson
1 year ago
Reply to  R Wright

You’d forgotten we got a Conservative/Liberal coalition in 2010. 65% of electorate voted. In fact Lab/Liberals had more seats in total but Clegg did deal with Cameron as we know. At best probably Tories got c30% of total electorate, probably bit less. Furthermore the reasons behind why folks vote the way they do isn’t disclosed. Will be multiple reasons. Wanting a smaller state ‘possibly’ but one.
So quite how you determine the Public voted for a small state in 2010 isn’t clear, but your subsequent disappointment may be explained by that expectation.
I suspect overall Public wants good comprehensive public services provided as cheaply as poss, but again only a guess.

Last edited 1 year ago by j watson
R Wright
R Wright
1 year ago

In 2010 the British public voted for a small state. In 2023 this is what we have instead. Conservatism has become an embarrassing joke.

James Stangl
James Stangl
1 year ago

“Is the government spying on you?” The short answer in the USA, UK, and I assume Canada, AUS, and NZ is, you bet. Or as the joke in America goes, “The only agency of the government that really listens to you is the NSA (National Security Agency)!”

James Stangl
James Stangl
1 year ago

“Is the government spying on you?” The short answer in the USA, UK, and I assume Canada, AUS, and NZ is, you bet. Or as the joke in America goes, “The only agency of the government that really listens to you is the NSA (National Security Agency)!”

Elliott Bjorn
Elliott Bjorn
1 year ago

Haha, so we find not only do we have political secret Police, but we find we have our own ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ owned by our own governments to use on their own citizens.

Whitney, Fauci, et al, haha, and they get away with it…..makes one recall unit 731

So we are finding the CIA did kill Kennedy, and the FBI created the ‘Watergate Papers and Deep-Throat’ and deposed a hugely popular, sitting, President, Nixon and replaced him with their stooge Ford.

I am sure there is NO doubt in anyone’s mind that the FBI directly caused Trump to be ousted, and Biden to illegally take his position. Just FBI burying the Hunter laptop alone did that! And FBI Had had it for over a year by then.

THREE Presidents in 60 years Deposed! Talk about political coups! We think of seedy Generals overthrowing dissipated kings like Iraq in 1964, and Saddam, and also of Mossadegh and the Dulles Brothers’ CIA, and MI-6, and the CIA/MI-6 planned Khomeini ousting the of Shah, and Cambodia and Air America and Iran-Contra and …. – but no, it is sitting USA Presidents!

Greatest Democracy in history, best Constitution written by Man – and some security organization inside has Ousted Three sitting Presidents in 60 years!
(allegedly)

Naturally we have these 100% illegal and evil secret police knee deep in doing the Davos petty bidding … Crazy times….Dr Campbell on youtube even released a video on 77th Brigade.

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  Elliott Bjorn

Campbell has some valid points and questions. His content however plays to a highly cynical audience prepared to believe his propaganda. Every time he produces something the fact check alarm bells go crazy.

Andrew Dalton
Andrew Dalton
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

Campbell started off as a signed up organ of state propaganda. Fewer Youtubers were more supportive of lockdowns and vaccines than Campbell.
You may want to view his long journey through the rabbit hole.

Andrew Dalton
Andrew Dalton
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

Campbell started off as a signed up organ of state propaganda. Fewer Youtubers were more supportive of lockdowns and vaccines than Campbell.
You may want to view his long journey through the rabbit hole.

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  Elliott Bjorn

Campbell has some valid points and questions. His content however plays to a highly cynical audience prepared to believe his propaganda. Every time he produces something the fact check alarm bells go crazy.

Elliott Bjorn
Elliott Bjorn
1 year ago

Haha, so we find not only do we have political secret Police, but we find we have our own ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ owned by our own governments to use on their own citizens.

Whitney, Fauci, et al, haha, and they get away with it…..makes one recall unit 731

So we are finding the CIA did kill Kennedy, and the FBI created the ‘Watergate Papers and Deep-Throat’ and deposed a hugely popular, sitting, President, Nixon and replaced him with their stooge Ford.

I am sure there is NO doubt in anyone’s mind that the FBI directly caused Trump to be ousted, and Biden to illegally take his position. Just FBI burying the Hunter laptop alone did that! And FBI Had had it for over a year by then.

THREE Presidents in 60 years Deposed! Talk about political coups! We think of seedy Generals overthrowing dissipated kings like Iraq in 1964, and Saddam, and also of Mossadegh and the Dulles Brothers’ CIA, and MI-6, and the CIA/MI-6 planned Khomeini ousting the of Shah, and Cambodia and Air America and Iran-Contra and …. – but no, it is sitting USA Presidents!

Greatest Democracy in history, best Constitution written by Man – and some security organization inside has Ousted Three sitting Presidents in 60 years!
(allegedly)

Naturally we have these 100% illegal and evil secret police knee deep in doing the Davos petty bidding … Crazy times….Dr Campbell on youtube even released a video on 77th Brigade.

B Emery
B Emery
1 year ago

Jesus christ. I thought the Americans were bad. That’s slightly disturbing.
.

B Emery
B Emery
1 year ago

Jesus christ. I thought the Americans were bad. That’s slightly disturbing.
.

j watson
j watson
1 year ago

It ought to be possible to trace the decisions on what the CDU and RRU were doing back to specific civil servants and Ministers. As regards DCMS we’ve got Dorries -21-22; Dowden 20-21; and Morgan 19-20, (the revolving door doesn’t help a Sec of State properly grip their brief but that’s another matter) as Secretaries of State. And obviously above them during this period was Johnson.
Let us hope the Pandemic Public Enquiry gets into this and they have to attend and answer questions along with the senior Civil Servants and whoever else the Enquiry requires. It must also lead to a strengthening of the oversight played by the ISC – Parliaments Intelligence and Security Cmttee. It sets it’s own agenda so can decide to almost immediately dig into this. Julian Lewis chairs. Obviously sometimes hearings are subject to Official Secrets Act and cannot be in public, but the Cmttee has our elected representatives and they can make judgments.
Having intelligence and counter measures to combat foreign entity misinformation is essential.  CCP, FBS and VAKA almost certainly highly active in sowing division and doubt via social media and other methods. But whether poorly controlled, or politically directed the RRU and CDU appear to have lost the plot here. 

j watson
j watson
1 year ago

It ought to be possible to trace the decisions on what the CDU and RRU were doing back to specific civil servants and Ministers. As regards DCMS we’ve got Dorries -21-22; Dowden 20-21; and Morgan 19-20, (the revolving door doesn’t help a Sec of State properly grip their brief but that’s another matter) as Secretaries of State. And obviously above them during this period was Johnson.
Let us hope the Pandemic Public Enquiry gets into this and they have to attend and answer questions along with the senior Civil Servants and whoever else the Enquiry requires. It must also lead to a strengthening of the oversight played by the ISC – Parliaments Intelligence and Security Cmttee. It sets it’s own agenda so can decide to almost immediately dig into this. Julian Lewis chairs. Obviously sometimes hearings are subject to Official Secrets Act and cannot be in public, but the Cmttee has our elected representatives and they can make judgments.
Having intelligence and counter measures to combat foreign entity misinformation is essential.  CCP, FBS and VAKA almost certainly highly active in sowing division and doubt via social media and other methods. But whether poorly controlled, or politically directed the RRU and CDU appear to have lost the plot here. 

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
1 year ago

“the CDU worked to counter a number of falsehoods, including the conspiracy that they make people (especially those from ethnic minorities) infertile“

Has the author paused to consider whether it might be possible that the novel pharmaceuticals could, potentially, have an *unintended* impact on fertility?

She might wish to peruse Sonia Elijah’s courageous and detailed investigative reporting. For example:

https://soniaelijah.substack.com/p/covid-19-mrna-vaccines-for-pregnant

Elijah reported that in Pfizer’s own US post-authorization safety report, only released on the order of a court following an FOI request:

“Pregnancy outcomes for the 270 pregnancies were reported as spontaneous abortion (23), outcome pending (5), premature birth with neonatal death, spontaneous abortion with intrauterine death (2 each), spontaneous abortion with neonatal death, and normal outcome (1 each). No outcome was provided for 238 pregnancies.“ The documentation apparently does not provide an explanation for this.

She also reports that the UK MHRA itself says, because of the absence of good data on the risks: “healthcare professionals are advised to rule out known or suspected pregnancy prior to vaccination. Women who are breastfeeding should also not be vaccinated.”

Now, this is not to say that any of this proves any direct link between the pharma products and fertility. But it certainly should be of concern to anyone planning to start a family and it would be absolutely shocking if government agents were trying to stop ordinary folk educating themselves about the potential risks, in particular given what is now known about how the spike proteins can get into the blood stream and organs, and in the absence – as far as I am aware – of any serious attempt to do a proper real world study of the impact that they might have had on various aspects of health, please could the author acknowledge that it would not necessarily be a *conspiracy* that these things *might* in *some cases* cause fertility problems?

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
1 year ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

Thank you to the Unherd moderators for restoring my comment after it was flagged for moderation.

To the person who flagged it: perhaps you would care to set out your reasoning as to why you did this; and what, if anything, about my comment you take issue with. Surely, if you think I am wrong to say these things, a better way to prove me so would be to set out your case rather than to try silence me. For example, is there in fact a serious, unbiased, independent, real world study of the impact that the products have had on reproductive health? If you could point me in the right direction for that I would very happily stand corrected. Thanks.

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
1 year ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

Thank you to the Unherd moderators for restoring my comment after it was flagged for moderation.

To the person who flagged it: perhaps you would care to set out your reasoning as to why you did this; and what, if anything, about my comment you take issue with. Surely, if you think I am wrong to say these things, a better way to prove me so would be to set out your case rather than to try silence me. For example, is there in fact a serious, unbiased, independent, real world study of the impact that the products have had on reproductive health? If you could point me in the right direction for that I would very happily stand corrected. Thanks.

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
1 year ago

“the CDU worked to counter a number of falsehoods, including the conspiracy that they make people (especially those from ethnic minorities) infertile“

Has the author paused to consider whether it might be possible that the novel pharmaceuticals could, potentially, have an *unintended* impact on fertility?

She might wish to peruse Sonia Elijah’s courageous and detailed investigative reporting. For example:

https://soniaelijah.substack.com/p/covid-19-mrna-vaccines-for-pregnant

Elijah reported that in Pfizer’s own US post-authorization safety report, only released on the order of a court following an FOI request:

“Pregnancy outcomes for the 270 pregnancies were reported as spontaneous abortion (23), outcome pending (5), premature birth with neonatal death, spontaneous abortion with intrauterine death (2 each), spontaneous abortion with neonatal death, and normal outcome (1 each). No outcome was provided for 238 pregnancies.“ The documentation apparently does not provide an explanation for this.

She also reports that the UK MHRA itself says, because of the absence of good data on the risks: “healthcare professionals are advised to rule out known or suspected pregnancy prior to vaccination. Women who are breastfeeding should also not be vaccinated.”

Now, this is not to say that any of this proves any direct link between the pharma products and fertility. But it certainly should be of concern to anyone planning to start a family and it would be absolutely shocking if government agents were trying to stop ordinary folk educating themselves about the potential risks, in particular given what is now known about how the spike proteins can get into the blood stream and organs, and in the absence – as far as I am aware – of any serious attempt to do a proper real world study of the impact that they might have had on various aspects of health, please could the author acknowledge that it would not necessarily be a *conspiracy* that these things *might* in *some cases* cause fertility problems?

Mark Duffett
Mark Duffett
1 year ago

And now research is showing the whole issue of online misinformation is way overblown, thus there is no justification for bodies such as CDU to exist.

Mark Duffett
Mark Duffett
1 year ago

And now research is showing the whole issue of online misinformation is way overblown, thus there is no justification for bodies such as CDU to exist.

Rob N
Rob N
1 year ago

Suggest we all put in SARs to DCMS to find out what they hold on us and show them we care. Pity it will create extra work for them but that is just a consequence of them spying on us.

Rob N
Rob N
1 year ago

Suggest we all put in SARs to DCMS to find out what they hold on us and show them we care. Pity it will create extra work for them but that is just a consequence of them spying on us.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Nu britn follows the Ceaucescu Honnicher path, with the pipl and their rubber backbones of compliance following the satanic Boris Johnson pied piper…

B Emery
B Emery
1 year ago

What is this nu britn you keep speaking of? Can you describe it in most scathing, entertaining terms possible, and what would you do instead. What did boris do so wrong do you think?

Fredrich Nicecar
Fredrich Nicecar
1 year ago
Reply to  B Emery

What did Boris do right ? This episode alone is why he should never be allowed anywhere near government. He is a very dangerous man.

Fredrich Nicecar
Fredrich Nicecar
1 year ago
Reply to  B Emery

What did Boris do right ? This episode alone is why he should never be allowed anywhere near government. He is a very dangerous man.

B Emery
B Emery
1 year ago

What is this nu britn you keep speaking of? Can you describe it in most scathing, entertaining terms possible, and what would you do instead. What did boris do so wrong do you think?

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Nu britn follows the Ceaucescu Honnicher path, with the pipl and their rubber backbones of compliance following the satanic Boris Johnson pied piper…