UK ‘spy’ agency brought in to monitor social media during riot

A secretive government agency used to “spy on” anti-lockdown campaigners during the Covid pandemic has been deployed to monitor social media amid the riots, The Telegraph has learnt.

The Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU), now rebranded as the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT), has been given the task just months after MPs called for an independent review of its activities.

Campaigners have expressed concern that NSOIT is playing a central role in the riots response despite outstanding questions over whether it is fit for purpose.

The CDU was set up in March 2020 to combat what Boris Johnson’s government described as “false coronavirus information online” but, as The Telegraph later revealed, was also used to crack down on dissent from those who disagreed with official policy.

Among those who were monitored by the unit were Carl Heneghan, the epidemiologist who opposed blanket lockdowns, Molly Kingsley, who campaigned to keep schools open during the pandemic, and David Davis, the Conservative MP who called for the CDU to be shut down.

Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties group, described the CDU as “one of the most opaque units in Government outside the security services” and accused it of “spying on” free speech.

The Government is urging internet giants to remove misleading content from the far Right more quickly, amid fears that it is fuelling the violence seen in the last week.