UK to Set Up New Agency to Counter 'Information Warfare' From Hostile States
A new National Centre for Information Defence will target disinformation and deepfakes from states such as Russia, Andy Burnham says.
The UK government will set up a new national centre to counter disinformation and deepfakes originating from hostile states such as Russia, Andy Burnham has announced, according to the Guardian.
Burnham said the government had a duty to "stem the poisonous tide" of information warfare that he said was being used to damage British interests. The new body, described as the National Centre for Information Defence, is intended to bring together the UK's intelligence agencies, law enforcement bodies and social media companies to detect, attribute and disrupt information attacks carried out by foreign powers.
Many such attacks are increasingly enabled by artificial intelligence, which has made it easier to produce convincing deepfake videos, audio and images, as well as to generate and spread disinformation at scale across social media platforms. Security officials in the UK and allied countries have grown increasingly concerned in recent years about the potential for AI-generated content to influence elections, undermine public trust in institutions, and sow discord during periods of political or social tension.
The announcement reflects a broader push among Western governments to build institutional capacity specifically focused on countering foreign information operations, an area that has traditionally sat awkwardly across different agencies with overlapping but not fully coordinated responsibilities for cybersecurity, counter-intelligence and online platform regulation.
Details on the new centre's precise powers, funding, and operational timeline were not fully specified in the available report, though its stated remit of detecting, attributing and disrupting information attacks suggests an ambition to move beyond purely defensive monitoring toward more active countermeasures against disinformation campaigns.
Russia has previously denied accusations from Western governments that it engages in coordinated disinformation campaigns against other states.
Sources
- New UK agency will tackle ‘information warfare’ from likes of Russia, Burnham says — The Guardian — World
EGazette summarizes reporting from multiple sources; follow the links for the originals.
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