Home Office: Public Opinion

(asked on 30th January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which Minister or official authorised the Research, Information and Communication Unit to collect data related to public statements, social media and internet activity as part of that unit's work.


Answered by
Tom Tugendhat Portrait
Tom Tugendhat
Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
This question was answered on 2nd February 2023

The Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU) was established in 2007 under the Prevent strand of HMG’s CONTEST strategy. RICU aims to understand and counter terrorist and extremist ideologies to reduce the risk to the UK, its citizens, and its interests overseas.

RICU provides analysis on terrorist use of propaganda and exploitation of the internet to inform the UK’s counter-terrorism system. To support this crucial objective RICU undertakes open-source monitoring to better understand the media, online and communications environment as it relates to terrorism and extremism. All RICU data collection and analysis complies with relevant legislation.

The work of RICU is crucial to the delivery of Prevent and has helped to position the UK at the forefront of the battle against terrorist propaganda, particularly online terrorist content. Ministers have authorised RICU’s work since it was established in 2007, and through subsequent updates to the CONTEST strategy (in 2011 and 2018) and regularly receive RICU outputs.

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