Security News > 2020 > July > UK intel committee on Russia: Social media firms should remove state disinformation. What was that, MI5? ████████?
An influential UK Parliamentary committee has called on social media companies to remove covert hostile state material and said the government must "Name and shame" those that fail to act.
We are concerned that there is no clear coordination of the numerous organisations across the UK intelligence community working on , this is reinforced by an unnecessarily complicated wiring diagram of responsibilities amongst ministers.... The focus of political attention because of its relevance to the EU referendum and subject to delay at the hands of Prime Minister and his office, the report also details use of technology and social media for nefarious Russian activity.
"Government should 'name and shame' those which fail to act. Such a protocol could, usefully, be expanded to encompass the other areas in which action is required from the social media companies, since this issue is not unique to Hostile State Activity. This matter is, in our view, urgent and we expect the Government to report on progress in this area as soon as possible."
The report added that evidence from the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and Russia's "Hack and leak" operation against the Democratic National Committee in the US showed the potential for Russian interference in the democratic process of foreign powers, including the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. "In speculation that this report was going to reveal either that Russia had interfered in or sought to influence the referendum, in the committee's view it's worse than that," committee member Kevan Jones said during a press briefing.
"This report reveals that no one in government knew if Russia interfered in or sought to influence that referendum, because they did not want to know. UK government has actively avoided looking for evidence that Russia interfered."