Fighting back against online foreign interference

Earlier this year, I blogged about why Faculty chose to work in defence. 

In short, we made a conscious decision to do our bit as a company to help protect and defend western democratic values. 

And most people - regardless of your politics - would agree those values matter. 

They are worth defending, and worth fighting for. 

Future generations deserve to live with the same rights and freedoms enjoyed by their parents and grandparents.

So it troubles me how these Western values are increasingly under threat - and nowhere is this more apparent than online. 

Hostile states are deliberately flooding content platforms with mass-scale disinformation.

The Kremlin uses state-sponsored media to pump out content questioning democratic processes, like elections. China and other states use similarly malicious tactics.

And, of course, online disinformation doesn’t just come from foreign states. 

Terror groups also push false and dangerous narratives to radicalise the vulnerable and undermine Western values. 

It is no coincidence that the World Economic Forum has named disinformation the greatest short-term risk for the second year in a row.

Because weaponising disinformation is not a victimless act. 

Businesses lose money when state-sponsored hackers manipulate financial markets. Communities are threatened when individuals are radicalised online. 

Faced with these threats, democratic states like the UK have two broad options.

We can sit back, let this wave of disinformation wash over us, and watch hostile states and terror groups undermine our national security. 

Or, we can act, by assessing dangerous online narratives, and taking steps to protect the public if needed. 

To me, the first option is unpalatable, for several reasons.

First, it risks undermining national security. Disinformation drives wedges between allies by fostering distrust and miscommunication - weakening the international partnerships essential for coordinated responses to precisely the sort of global threats we face today.

Second, it risks undermining democracy. Just look at what is happening in Romania at present and the role disinformation was found to have played in their recent elections.

Third, it’s at odds with what other Western democratic institutions have chosen to do.

France has an agency that looks specifically at foreign digital interference. NATO and other Western democracies publicly call out and rebut disinformation. 

Put all these things together, and you can understand why we decided to help the UK government assess the threats posed by foreign online interference. 

And to prevent mission creep, or from ever policing mainstream debate, we built the technology tightly, and with strictly limited powers.

The tool cannot analyse or target individuals. It cannot determine what is or isn’t disinformation.

Because this is not, and has never been, about policing public opinion, or finding posts that might offend someone. 

Our sole interest is protecting the security of our citizens and our democratic values.

And it is precisely because we cherish our fundamental rights, like free speech, that we are fighting back against foreign interference in our democracy and wider society.