Report: UK Govt's Secret Unit Stifled COVID Policy Dissent

JUN 8 2023·Updated AUG 27

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Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Facts

According to data released by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), the UK government's Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) collected posts from Telegram about Professor Carl Heneghan, an Oxford epidemiologist who was critical of lockdown measures.
The Telegraph
The CDU — which assesses online disinformation and leads government response to such threats — also allegedly collected posts on London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine research fellow Dr. Alex de Figueiredo, and Molly Kingsley, who campaigned to keep schools open.
Times
The Telegram posts reportedly referenced Heneghan's claim that "most diabetic, heart disease and Alzheimer's deaths were categorized [sic.] as COVID deaths in the UK," as well as one which saw him criticize the government's Rule of Six regarding social gathering.
The Telegraph
Documents revealed under Freedom of Information and data protection requests allegedly reveal the CDU secretly monitored and flagged online criticism of the government's lockdown policies and children's mass vaccination program using an artificial intelligence firm.
Reclaim The Net
While the government says the CDU only tracks online narratives and trends "to protect public health and national security," campaign group Big Brother Watch admitted that the Unit requested its social media posts be taken down.
Times
The developments come as former PM Boris Johnson recently bypassed the Cabinet Office in sharing his unredacted WhatsApp messages directly with the COVID inquiry to assist their investigation of the government's handling of the pandemic.
ITN

Sources Split

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The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

In tandem with Big Tech and media conglomerates, the government actively spied on and censored highly-respected scientists to keep them from challenging pandemic lockdowns. Public policies may have changed had the nation been aware of prominent experts' dissenting views, but freedom of scientific debate was stifled in favor of ideological ruling. It's time for this report to be independently investigated.

The Telegraph

Pro-establishment narrative

The CDU is not a secret authoritarian spy agency — it's a publicly known division of the PM's cabinet and abides by the laws of the UK. Moreover, while data may be gathered from a social media platform, any decision to take down individual posts is at the discretion of the forum concerned, not the government. Furthermore, since the CDU uses third parties to analyze disinformation, it's misleading to suggest that the government 'spied' on critics of pandemic policy.

GOV.UK