UK Gov ‘Disinfo’, From Lockdown Dissenters To Spying On Migration Critics
The government is secretively pressuring social media companies to ‘act’ on posts with “concerning narratives”
A shady government outfit in the UK that was previously tasked with identifying and monitoring COVID lockdown dissenters has been repurposed to spy on critics of mass migration and so called ‘asylum’ hotels, the Telegraph reports.
The body, now known as the National Security and Online Information Team (NSOIT) has been lobbying social media companies such as TikTok to take action against users who post what it describes as “concerning narratives” about immigration and ‘two tier policing’.
The unit operates within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and was previously known as the ‘Counter Disinformation Unit’ during the pandemic.
Wow. “Labour’s plot to silence migrant hotel critics. Emails reveal Whitehall ‘spy’ unit complaining to tech firms about content mentioning asylum seekers & two-tier policing”
This is WILD https://t.co/wDvNVhWVEJ
— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) July 31, 2025
During the COVID lockdowns, the unit was tasked with pressuring social media companies to target and censor those critical of the stay at home orders and those questioning the mass vaccination of children. Discussions opposing vaccine passports were also flagged.
🚨EXCLUSIVE: A secretive government unit worked with social media companies in an attempt to curtail discussion of controversial lockdown policies.
Read the full article here: https://t.co/kWlMk735rW pic.twitter.com/XsbL3jDvAP
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 2, 2023
The rebranded outfit has now been flagging videos it sees as “exacerbating tensions” in Britain, particularly in August last year during the unrest stemming from the murder of three children by a second generation migrant in Southport.
The report contains examples of emails sent by government workers asking for the unit to investigate posts that are critical of migration, such as the one below to TikTok that expresses an ‘urgent’ need to monitor a post that highlighted a rejected Freedom of Information request about the location of asylum hotels, and a reference to asylum seekers as “undocumented fighting-age males”.
Another email shows that government officials warned TikTok that users were posting about “two-tier” policing at Southport rallies, amid accusations that white protesters had been treated more harshly by the police than ethnic minorities.
The government officials demanded that TikTok explain “any measures you have taken in response…as soon as you are able to”.
The Telegraph report adds:
A third example of “concerning content” flagged by the team was a video of Pakistani men celebrating on a street, posted on Aug 5 and captioned: “Looks like Islamabad but it’s Manchester”. The team claimed it had been shared “in order to incite fear of the Muslim community”.
The emails did not ask for the content to be removed, but requested that TikTok explained how it was dealing with it.
The report further notes that the emails came to light in materials obtained by the US House of Representatives’ judiciary committee, which issued a subpoena to TikTok to hand over messages “regarding the company’s compliance with foreign censorship laws”.
The US under the Trump administration has expressed concern that the British government is censoring social media, and cracking down on users who post content it deems as harmful.
US ‘greatly concerned’ about free speech in Britain as secretive Whitehall unit ‘spying’ on critics of migrant hotelshttps://t.co/IJhXYMeixj
— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 2, 2025
These fears have only been heightened with the introduction of the so called Online Safety Act, which appears to be already being used as a tool for further censorship.
As we highlighted last week, X users in Britain are reporting that footage of rapidly growing anti-mass migration protests in the country is being blocked under the new law.
British users of X shared screenshots of messages that popped up while they attempted to view footage from the protests, which started in Epping after a migrant sexually assaulted a teenage girl and have since spread around the country.
News also broke of an “elite” police squad of officers tasked with monitoring spicy tweets about migration.
But they won’t stop burglars and thieves. Backwards. pic.twitter.com/Bas7F4MXb7
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) July 27, 2025
The Telegraph report states:
An elite team of police officers is to monitor social media for anti-migrant sentiment amid fears of summer riots.
Detectives will be drawn from forces across the country to take part in a new investigations unit that will flag up early signs of potential civil unrest.
The division, assembled by the Home Office, will aim to “maximise social media intelligence” gathering after police forces were criticised over their response to last year’s riots.
Elon Musk’s X has accused the UK of enacting “censorship” under the new law, noting “The Act’s laudable intentions are at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach. Without a more balanced, collaborative approach, free speech will suffer,”
Elon Musk’s X warns free speech under threat due to UK’s new Online Safety Acthttps://t.co/8n2f5Eojfh
— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 1, 2025
A spokesman for the Big Brother Watch anti-censorship group has called for an immediate investigation into the British government’s National Security and Online Information Team, warning that an “unaccountable and secretive Government unit is spying on speech that is critical of the police and Government policies”.
“Legitimate concerns about racism and violence must not become a blank cheque for the monitoring and censorship of controversial speech, absent of any oversight or scrutiny,” they added.
+++
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.
***
Header featured image (edited) credit: Org. post content. Emphasis added by (TLB)
••••
••••
Stay tuned…
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Leave a Reply