LONDON (LifeSiteNews) –– The U.K.’s BBC is being widely criticized after it announced the formation of a new team to fight “disinformation” online and in wider society.
The BBC Verify unit was recently announced by the U.K.’s national broadcaster as a means to fact-check and counter “disinformation.” It will work as a subsidiary of the BBC, with an office in the BBC’s broadcasting house in London.
Formed of 60 journalists, the new team will be led by 27-year-old Marianna Spring – the BBC’s so-called “disinformation correspondent.” Since March of 2020, Spring has been part of the BBC’s campaign against “disinformation,” and as such has worked against what she has styled “conspiracy theories,” including information contrary to the mainstream narrative on issues such as COVID-19 injections, and the U.S. 2020 presidential election.
READ: BBC gloats over Facebook’s removal of COVID jab injury support group with over 250k members
Spring – who previously worked at the left-wing news outlet The Guardian before joining the BBC – has been persistent in promoting the COVID-19 injections and reporting against those who warn about the injections, with growing evidence of her bias against those opposed to COVID measures.
Announcing the new team, Spring revealed her current investigation into the “U.K’s conspiracy theory movement,” which included looking into “alternative media” and how this has “evolved and intensified” since the start of COVID-19.
Such investigation into the U.K’s “conspiracy theory movement” involve Spring looking into funding, foreign links, “far-right figures” and local impact – in order to then produce BBC coverage against such “disinformation.”
Spring also revealed existence of “undercover” social media accounts which she has set up in order to “understand polarization online.”
BBC News has unveiled BBC Verify to address the growing threat of disinformation and build trust with audiences through transparency.
The BBC’s Disinformation Correspondent Marianna Spring had more details on #BBCBreakfast https://t.co/00Nv9Z7Xlm pic.twitter.com/bZ23An2VhL
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) May 22, 2023
Hailing the start of the new team, BBC News CEO Deborah Turness stated that TV audiences are “constantly bombarded with mis- and disinformation, and with fake images, including those generated by AI.”
READ: Conflict of interest? Report suggests Bill Gates has given massive funding to mainstream media
“They are telling us that amid this noise and sensationalism, they need to see our workings, so we can maintain the trust people have put in the BBC for the last 100 years,” she said, adding that the 60-strong team will be using open-source investigative techniques. “People want to know not just what we know (and don’t know), but how we know it.”
They’ll be fact-checking, verifying video, countering disinformation, analysing data and – crucially – explaining complex stories in the pursuit of truth.
However, news to the team’s formation has been met with almost universal ridicule and consternation, both in the U.K. and from abroad.
The @BBCWorld launched a team of “disinformation journalists”. They’ll assume fake web identities and expose connections between alternative media, foreign actors & the “far right” – see video.
Not only did MSM spread misinformation for 3 years – Stalinism now arrived in the UK. https://t.co/pDDGMDH5NI
— Roman Baber (@Roman_Baber) May 23, 2023
Andrew Bridgen MP – recently ousted from the Conservative party for raising the issue of documented COVID-19 injection harms – questioned whether the new team would investigate claims made about the injections, before quipping “This definitely won’t be used for anything Orwellian!”
BBC Verify: the new “counter disinformation” arm of the state Broadcaster.
This definitely won’t be used for anything Orwellian! https://t.co/vvqZnkRyjE
— Andrew Bridgen (@ABridgen) May 22, 2023
Well-known philosopher Dr. Jordan Peterson slated Spring’s title “Disinformation correspondent” as being “Orwell grave spin speed 5000 rpm.”
Meanwhile the think-tank Bruges Group called the admittance of Spring’s fake social media accounts “almost as big a joke as the license fee,” and Spectator podcast host Winston Marshall questioned whether the BBC was “not already discerning between truth and lies?”
To “address the growing threat of disinformation and build trust with audiences through transparency”, the BBC has created fake social media accounts.
This is almost as big a joke as the licence fee. https://t.co/7xINZKYKru
— Bruges Group 🇬🇧 (@BrugesGroup) May 22, 2023
“If you want to build trust maybe avoid tribe-signaling meaningless terms like ‘disinformation’ which will only alienate those you disdain,” said Marshall.
Even left-wing outlets have criticized the BBC’s new endeavor, with Spiked writing that “the BBC not only inflates the dangers of social-media falsehoods, it has also applied the disinformation label to stories that are actually true.”
READ: BBC instructs journalists to use ‘political influence’ to push ‘transgender’ ideology
“All too often, the charge of ‘disinformation’ is used as another way of demonizing those with dissenting opinions,” wrote Spiked’s deputy editor, while adding how “the BBC has been known to spread untruths of its own. Take its coverage of the trans issue.”
What it really expresses is a fear of free speech – a fear of unregulated conversations and unsanctioned ideas. The first casualty of this war on disinformation will be our liberty to speak our minds.