Daily Mail – 77th Brigade spied on lockdown critics

A new report by civil liberties group Big Brother Watch reveals that the British army secretly spied on British citizens critical of Government policies during the pandemic.

The report revealed that five secretive government units, including Counter Disinformation Unit based in the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Cabinet Office’s Rapid Response Unit, have been surveilling and censoring scores of high-profile individuals who were critical of government policies. Mail on Sunday journalist Peter Hitchens, Conservative MP David Davis, and members of staff of Big Brother Watch were all targeted by this shady unit.

Director for Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, said, “This is an alarming case of mission creep, where public money and military power have been misused to monitor academics, journalists, campaigners and MPs who criticised the Government, particularly during the pandemic.

The fact that this political monitoring happened under the guise of ‘countering misinformation’ highlights how, without serious safeguards, the concept of ‘wrong information’ is open to abuse and has become a blank cheque the Government uses in an attempt to control narratives online.

‘Contrary to their stated aims, these Government truth units are secretive and harmful to our democracy. The Counter Disinformation Unit should be suspended immediately and subject to a full investigation.”

Mr Hitchens’ tweets were shadow-banned during the pandemic. He said, “The most astonishing thing about the great Covid panic was how many attacks the state managed to make on basic freedoms without anyone much even caring, let alone protesting.

Now is the time to demand a full and powerful investigation into the dark material Big Brother Watch has bravely uncovered.”

According to a Downing Street source, these units stopped electronically monitoring public sentiment since the end of the lockdowns.

Daily Mail – Army spied on lockdown critics: Sceptics, including our own Peter Hitchens, long suspected they were under surveillance. Now we’ve obtained official records that prove they were right all along

The Telegraph – Army’s ‘information warfare’ unit monitored Covid lockdown critics

OpenDemocracy – Government ‘misinformation’ unit flagged investigative journalism and critics

UnHerd – Is the Government spying on you?

London Post – Government tried to ‘cover-up’ secret Army units that were sent to spy on Covid questioners

Reclaim the Net – UK government monitored tweets from high profile journalists and politicians that criticized Covid policy

Spectator – Big Brother is watching me

Russell Brand – THEY ARE SPYING ON YOU | Whistleblower Exposes ‘Ministry Of Truth’ with Silkie Carlo

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