@Mylovanov: UK PM Burnham: The Kremlin spends about $1.7bn (£1.3bn) a year on manipulating information. That money buys bots and fa…
Summary
The Guardian reports that the Kremlin spends roughly $1.7bn a year on information manipulation using bots and fake sites impersonating the BBC and 27 other British organisations, prompting the UK to create a new state agency to counter it.
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UK PM Burnham: The Kremlin spends about $1.7bn (£1.3bn) a year on manipulating information.
That money buys bots and fake sites posing as the BBC and 27 other British organisations.
Britain is now creating a state agency to fight back — The Guardian. 1/
Burnham announced the National Centre for Information Defence at the UN in New York on Tuesday night. It will detect, attribute and disrupt attacks by foreign powers.
It puts the intelligence agencies, the police and the social media companies in one room.
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Russian operators falsified newspaper articles and forged the branding of 28 British organisations, including universities and the BBC.
They amplified far-right narratives and tried to interfere in the 2019 election.
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Burnham: we’re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community — creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair.
He said AI will multiply the threat.
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The campaign lands hardest on people already under pressure. Burnham named those struggling with the cost of living and young people out of work, education or training.
Burnham: when inequalities grow too wide, our societies are at greater risk.
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Britain watched all of this for a decade and said little.
Burnham: we have tiptoed around this for too long. Over the last decade we have given too much ground to those who want to run a corrosive narrative about life in Britain. Well, no more.
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Trump said at the UN that Starmer had been too tough on Moscow and that Britain needs to be a little bit careful.
Downing Street answered that Russia’s behaviour is egregious and unacceptable, and that its aggression will not deter Britain from supporting Ukraine.
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Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said the centre was the main recommendation of her March 2026 report on disinformation.
Burnham promised Britain will enter the next decade with its eyes wide open.
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British officials already helped Moldova protect its elections from Russian interference. They will share what they learned as more European votes approach.
Burnham: faced with this information warfare, security starts in every home.
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