British military and civilian teams have been placed on high alert this week due to fears that malicious actors will seek to target UK citizens with disinformation as the country embarks on the world’s first mass immunisation campaign. While intelligence assessments suggest the majority of anti-vaccine, or anti-vaxx, propaganda seen by UK internet users comes from within Britain, there is a small proportion that is being amplified or initiated by hostile states, notably Russia. Following a request for assistance last month, the army’s 77th Brigade information warfare unit has been drafted in to help officials across Whitehall to identify the most serious anti-vaxx disinformation originating from overseas so it can be managed through national security channels.
While intelligence assessments suggest the majority of anti-vaccine, or anti-vaxx, propaganda seen by UK internet users comes from within Britain, there is a small proportion that is being amplified or initiated by hostile states, notably Russia.
Following a request for assistance last month, the army’s 77th Brigade information warfare unit has been drafted in to help officials across Whitehall to identify the most serious anti-vaxx disinformation originating from overseas so it can be managed through national security channels...
“Russia uses vaccination [debates] opportunistically and they play both sides,” said David Broniatowski, an expert in vaccine disinformation and behavioural epidemiology at George Washington University.
“Around Covid they have really diversified . . . they are using vaccine debate, as they always have done, as a means of promoting discord, but it’s complicated by the fact that the Russian government is producing its own vaccine so there’s an element of vaccine nationalism going on,” Professor Broniatowski said. “They have multiple agendas and this vaccine is serving those agendas.”