Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a taskforce to (a) identify, (b) catalogue and (c) act on Russian disinformation on the war in Ukraine on social media channels.

Certain states routinely use disinformation as a foreign policy tool. The UK has a strong record of responding robustly to hostile state activity, in collaboration with our international partners, and we continue to take action in response to this form of malign influence.

That is why the DCMS-led Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) is working to identify and counter Russian disinformation targeted at UK and international audiences. We are working closely with the major social media platforms to encourage them to cooperate at speed to swiftly remove disinformation and coordinated inauthentic or manipulated behaviour, as per their Terms of Service. We also engage with platforms to understand policy changes and other countermeasures related to Russian information activities, and the effectiveness of these actions.

This work aids HMG assessment bodies and the UK Government Information Cell, which brings together the government’s counter-disinformation expertise and capabilities to identify and counter Russian information aggression and disinformation targeted at UK and international audiences.

We are also strengthening our new internet safety protections in the Online Safety Bill to make sure social media firms identify and root out state-backed disinformation. Along with the National Security Bill, it provides the legislative tools to ensure that service providers are forced to take proactive action against attempts by foreign actors to manipulate the online environment to interfere in our society and democracy.