Swedish Psychological Defence Agency

(asked on 1st November 2022) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies on countering foreign malign information, influence, disinformation and other misleading information of the establishment of the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 7th November 2022

Disinformation is one of a range of tools used by hostile actors from foreign states to attempt to achieve their wider objectives. DCMS leads the operational and policy response for countering disinformation across HMG. This includes responding to acute information incidents, such as Russian information operations during the war in Ukraine, disinformation relating to COVID-19, and electoral events.

The Government has amended the National Security Bill which strengthens our legislative response to state-linked disinformation aimed at the UK. The new Foreign Interference Offence brought forward in the National Security Bill will be named as a priority offence in the Online Safety Bill, forcing companies to proactively take action against a wide range of state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked online interference.

The UK, along with our G7 and NATO partners, is working hard to protect our democracies against disinformation. We work together with our allies on gaining a better understanding of the threat of mis and disinformation, and collaborating on our collective response.

Reticulating Splines