The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London<\/p>\n
-> Declassified<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0finds 25 \u00a0<\/strong>Guardian<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Observer<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0articles referencing the Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab, none of which mention its funding by the U.K. and U.S. governments<\/strong><\/p>\n -> The Centre for Information Resilience has been referenced 29 times in the U.K. media, with only one article mentioning its U.K. government funding<\/strong><\/p>\n -> The U.K. government refuses to tell Parliament which \u201ccounter-disinformation\u201d groups it supports and with how much money<\/strong><\/p>\n T<\/strong>he U.K. government has poured\u00a0over \u00a325 million<\/a>\u00a0into private \u201ccounter-disinformation\u201d organisations since January 2018 and four of these are directed by people linked to the British or U.S. foreign policy establishment.<\/p>\n Yet, while publishing information deriving from these groups, much of it on the Ukraine war, media outlets are failing to inform their readers of these organisations\u2019 ties to the U.K. government.<\/p>\n Instead, the information is presented as coming from \u201cindependent\u201d or \u201cnon-government\u201d sources, thereby obscuring the financial trail which leads to Whitehall.<\/p>\n The British public is being misinformed about the U.K. government\u2019s role in shaping coverage of global events such as the war in Ukraine, as well as the conflicts of interest which emerge from the incestuous relationship between the state, NGOs, and the media.<\/p>\n At the same time, the U.K. government is refusing to disclose the full extent of its links to the \u201ccounter-disinformation\u201d industry, such as which organisations receive funding and how much.<\/p>\n One counter-disinformation group receiving government funding is the Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), to which the Foreign Office has given at least \u00a36.7 million since January 2018. Other generous funders include the United Arab Emirates, Goldman Sachs, Facebook and the U.S. Departments of State and Defense.<\/p>\n The DFRLab says its mission is to \u201cidentify, expose, and explain disinformation where and when it occurs using open source research.\u201d \u00a0The organisation frequently\u00a0publishes<\/a> research about how the main adversaries of its funders \u2014 such as Russia, China and Iran \u2014 are engaged in malign information activities worldwide.<\/p>\n Declassified<\/em>\u00a0has found 25\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Observer<\/em>\u00a0articles which reference the DFRLab, its research or its employees. None of these articles mention the DFRLab\u2019s financial ties to both the U.K. and U.S. governments.<\/p>\n Instead, the DFRLab is referred to as a \u201cWashington. D.C.-based<\/a>\u201d organisation, \u201ca U.S. think tank<\/a>,\u201d \u201ca U.S. research\u00a0group<\/a>,\u201d \u201ca non-profit that monitors and combats disinformation\u00a0online<\/a>\u201d or \u201can independent digital forensic research\u00a0lab<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on a review of U.K. broadsheets using the Lexis database, the\u00a0Independent<\/em>\u00a0has\u00a0referenced<\/a>\u00a0the DFRLab\u00a0four<\/a>\u00a0times<\/a>\u00a0since January 2022, never mentioning its funding.<\/p>\n For its part, the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>\u00a0has\u00a0cited<\/a>\u00a0the DFRLab\u00a0on<\/a>\u00a0four<\/a>\u00a0occasions<\/a>, yet did not divulge the money it receives from the Foreign Office.<\/p>\n In November 2019, then Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn unearthed documents which showed that the country\u2019s health service, the National Health Service, or NHS, was on the table in trade talks with the U.S. Shortly after, DFRLab associates began to suggest the leak resembled a Russian disinformation operation.<\/p>\n Sky News\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cexperts from think tank Atlantic Council\u2026 have suggested the way the documents were shared is similar to a Russian disinformation campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe Atlantic Council\u201d helped \u201cto uncover evidence showing that the way the documents came into the public domain mirrored a disinformation campaign\u201d of Russian origin. It also cited Graham Brookie, director of the DFRLab, saying: \u201cWhoever did this\u2026 was absolutely trying to keep it a secret. It carries the spectre of foreign influence.\u201d<\/p>\n For its part, the\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0noted\u00a0<\/a>that the NHS document was analysed by the \u201cWashington-based Atlantic Council think-tank\u201d which suggested that \u201cthe incident could point to potential foreign interference in the upcoming U.K. election.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Metro\u00a0<\/em>reported\u00a0<\/a>that \u201cinternational affairs think tank The Atlantic Council found the documents were spread online in a similar way to\u201d a Russian information operation. The\u00a0Daily Express<\/em>\u00a0added\u00a0<\/a>that the \u201cAtlantic Council think tank\u201d worked \u201cto uncover evidence showing that the documents that came into the public domain mirrored a [Russian] disinformation campaign\u201d. The\u00a0Mirror\u00a0<\/em>also\u00a0weighed\u00a0<\/a>in on the affair.<\/p>\n Remarkably, neither Sky News, the\u00a0Telegraph<\/em>, the\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0Metro<\/em>, theExpress<\/em>, nor the\u00a0Mirror\u00a0<\/em>mentioned the crucial detail that the Atlantic Council receives millions of dollars from the U.K. Foreign Office and the U.S. Departments of State and Defense. As a result, none of these publications touched on the obvious conflicts of interest overshadowing this story.<\/p>\n As media analyst Adam Johnson\u00a0found<\/a>, U.S. outlets have fared little better, with Axios, Gizmodo, Fortune, Adweek, the Hill, Engaget and CNet all failing to inform readers about the \u201cglaring conflict of interest\u201d in DFRLab teaming up with Facebook to \u201cmonitor for misinformation and foreign interference\u201d.<\/p>\n Johnson writes:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a venture that\u2019s supposedly meant to curb \u2018foreign influence\u2019 is bankrolled by a number of foreign countries \u2014 including the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Norway, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea \u2014 one would think that would be worth noting.\u201d<\/p>\n Since January 2021, the Foreign Office has given at least \u00a32.7 million to the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), which openly acknowledges that it receives funding from the U.K. government on its website.<\/p>\n The CIR has been referenced in The<\/em>\u00a0Guardian<\/em>,\u00a0Observer<\/em>,\u00a0Independent<\/em>, BBC,\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>,\u00a0Times<\/em>,\u00a0Sunday Times<\/em>,\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>, Sky News, and\u00a0New Statesman<\/em>\u00a0no fewer than 29 times since January 2021 \u2014 yet the organisation\u2019s U.K. funding has been mentioned just once, according to\u00a0Declassified<\/em>\u2019s research.<\/p>\n The Centre for Information Resilience was founded by two Foreign Office veterans, Ross Burley and Adam Rutland, who are now its directors. It produces a regular stream of information relating to Russian war crimes and information operations, particularly in Ukraine. The organisation says its flagship project is monitoring human rights abuses in Myanmar. This information frequently gets picked up and reported on by the British press.<\/p>\n The<\/em>\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0has published seven articles which focus on or mention the Centre for Information Resilience\u2019s research, none of which state the U.K. government funds the CIR, nor that its directors are connected to the Foreign Office.<\/p>\n Instead, the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0refers to the Centre for Information Resilience as a \u201cU.K.-based human rights researchorganisation<\/a>,\u201d a \u201cLondon-based<\/a>\u201d or \u201cU.K.-based<\/a>\u201d organisation, a \u201cLondon-based human rights\u00a0organisation<\/a>\u201d and as a \u201cnon-government\u201d\u00a0organisation<\/a>. Two other\u00a0articles<\/a>\u00a0contain<\/a> no explanation of the CIR.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u2019s sister paper, the\u00a0Observer<\/em>, has published one article based on CIR research, in which the organisation is\u00a0referred<\/a>\u00a0to as a \u201cnon-profit U.K. social enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n The<\/em>\u00a0Independent<\/em>\u00a0has<\/a>\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0eight<\/a>\u00a0articles<\/a>\u00a0which<\/a>\u00a0reference<\/a>\u00a0the<\/a>\u00a0CIR<\/a>, none of which disclose the Centre for Information Resilience\u2019s sources of funding. In one article, by Nina Jankowicz, who works for the CIR, the organisation is\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0as \u201can independent U.K. social enterprise that identifies, counters and exposes disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n The BBC has\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0three<\/a>\u00a0articles<\/a>\u00a0which draw on the Centre for Information Resilience\u2019s research, with none of them mentioning that the organisation, like the BBC itself, receives a significant amount of funding from the U.K. government.<\/p>\n The BBC has also\u00a0interviewed<\/a>\u00a0the CIR\u2019s directors without\u00a0mentioning<\/a>\u00a0the organisation\u2019s government ties.<\/p>\n Declassified<\/em>\u00a0also found that the\u00a0Daily Mail\u00a0<\/em>cited the Centre for Information Resilience on\u00a0two<\/a>\u00a0occasions<\/a>\u00a0but, once again, did not mention its funding.<\/p>\n In the CIR\u2019s\u00a0round-up<\/a>\u00a0for 2022, the organisation boasted that it had partnered with \u201cdozens of media outlets\u201d including the\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>Sky News and the\u00a0New Statesman<\/em>. None of these media organisations informed readers of the CIR\u2019s Foreign Office funding.<\/p>\n After conducting a Lexis search for U.K. broadsheets,\u00a0Declassified UK<\/em>\u00a0could find only one article mentioning that the Centre for Information Resilience receives funding from the U.K. Foreign Office. On 29 January, the print edition of the\u00a0Sunday Times<\/em>\u00a0noted that the CIR\u2019s Myanmar Witness project \u201cis part-funded by the British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.\u201d<\/p>\n While the British media misinforms its readers about Foreign Office links to the organisations it cites, the U.K. government continues to shroud its own information operations in official secrecy.<\/p>\n In February 2022, Whitehall\u00a0established<\/a>\u00a0the Government Information Cell (GIC) \u201cto support the U.K.\u2019s response to Russian disinformation relating to their invasion of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n The GIC is a cross-government team \u201cof professionals in assessment and analysis, counter-disinformation, and strategic communication\u201d which is funded through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF<\/a>).<\/p>\n Though the Government Information Cell\u2019s operations will likely impact U.K. citizens, the British public is not allowed to know how much public money is being spent on this project.<\/p>\n As Foreign Office minister Leo Docherty recently\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Parliament: \u201cIt would not be appropriate to comment on funding levels publicly as to do so would give malign actors insight into our capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, the Foreign Office recently\u00a0refused<\/a>\u00a0to disclose to Parliament exactly which companies, think tanks, NGOs, and other organisations have been given funding to \u201cto help counter disinformation in the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n Docherty told Parliament that it is impossible to say how much the Foreign Office has spent on countering disinformation in each of the last four years as this information \u201ccould only be obtained at disproportionate cost.\u201d<\/p>\n John McEvoy is an independent journalist who has written for\u00a0<\/strong>International History Review<\/strong><\/em>, <\/strong>The Canary<\/strong><\/em>, <\/strong>Tribune Magazine<\/strong><\/em>, <\/strong>Jacobin<\/strong><\/em> and Brasil Wire.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mark Curtis is the editor of Declassified UK, and the author of five books and many articles on U.K. foreign policy.<\/strong><\/p>\n This article is from <\/em>Declassified UK.<\/a><\/p>\nAtlantic Council<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Conflicts of Interest<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018Information Resilience\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Funding, What Funding?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Secrecy on Information Operations<\/strong><\/h2>\n