Burnham announces plan for new UK center to fight disinformation

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham ordered a new national centre to detect and disrupt hostile disinformation.

At the U.N. General Assembly, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he ordered work on a National Centre for Information Defence to detect, attribute, and disrupt hostile state disinformation. The Cabinet Office is leading initial planning with intelligence agencies, other departments, law enforcement, and social media companies, though the centre's powers remain undefined. Burnham accused Russian agencies of using bots and fake websites, falsifying articles, and copying the branding of 28 British organizations, and said the Kremlin spends about £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) a year on information manipulation. Analysts compared the idea with France's Viginum and noted Britain's foreign-interference offense has been difficult to use.