Civil servants are being taught to spy on social media posts that express concern about migrants in order to stop online ‘disinformation’ and push ‘counter-narratives’. The Telegraph has more.
The Cabinet Office oversees the 6,000-strong Government Communications Service (GCS), which is responsible for pushing campaigns and policy messaging across Government departments.
The Telegraph can reveal this team is also charged with stopping online disinformation and producing “counter-narratives” to protect both departmental reputation and policy goals.
The new ‘Resist framework’ guidance instructs civil servants to monitor social media for “high-risk narratives” and gives the example of community housing concerns that could adversely affect particular ethnic groups and “new migrants”.
It also warns of online material that could “affect societal debates” about prominent issues “through polarisation”. The guidance was shared in October amid protests outside local migrant hotels following the sexual assault of a 14 year-old girl by Ethiopian hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu.
It was issued as part of a £36,000 contract between the GCS and private company Storyzy, which helps companies monitor social sites.
Examples of risks given in the guidance include the complaints “certain communities are getting priority housing while local families wait yearsˮ and “the council is secretly planning to build hundreds of units that will change our neighbourhood”.
Guidance suggests that these would pose a risk as they could “deepen existing community divisions and create new tensions between different groups”.
An example risk assessment, to be followed by civil servants, notes that such sentiments might be expressed by “local political activists attempting to build support”.
It states these narratives will have particular salience for “vulnerable audiences”, including the elderly and families in need of housing.
The guidance for civil servants goes on to provide an example of online information that could potentially cross the line from free debate to “harmful speech” – namely, the concerns of “representatives of a local parental association”.
Advice states that this hypothetical risky group could “keep posting links to some low-quality online local news sites as ‘proof’ of their arguments”, or create a closed online group for “concerned local citizens and encourage like-minded people to join”.
Alongside these examples are broader risks, including false information relating to the financial markets and malign claims about vaccine effectiveness.
The current guidance is the third iteration of the ‘Resist counter-disinformation toolkit’, funded through a European grant programme, which was first used to train civil servants in 2019. It has been updated to better reflect current risks.
Worth reading in full.
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