Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Crawley Excerpts
Monday 6th July 2020

(3 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Tommy Sheppard Portrait Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)
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What steps the Government is taking to help tackle disinformation in the context of the covid-19 pandemic.

Angela Crawley Portrait Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)
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What steps the Government is taking to help tackle disinformation in the context of the covid-19 pandemic.

James Heappey Portrait The Minister for the Armed Forces (James Heappey)
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The MOD is supporting the Government’s campaign against covid-19 disinformation by providing specialist personnel in advisory roles. This work is led by the Cabinet Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The Government are also working closely with social media platforms and academia to tackle this issue, and the Government’s focus remains on promoting factual public health advice and countering inaccurate content.

James Heappey Portrait James Heappey
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As these are Defence questions, I am somewhat outside my portfolio in answering in this question, but the Secretary of State, who sits in the Cabinet, tells me that the security committee is not yet formed, which is why the report has not yet been published.

Angela Crawley Portrait Angela Crawley [V]
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In many cases, disinformation about covid-19 can travel faster than the virus itself and pose just as great a risk to our security. Does the Minister agree with me and the majority of the public surveyed by the Open Knowledge Foundation that the Government need to urgently impose compulsory action on social media sites to clamp down on the spread of such misinformation?

James Heappey Portrait James Heappey
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Again, I am comfortable responding about disinformation, which the military has an active role in countering, but misinformation is the responsibility of my colleagues in the Cabinet Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.