UK’s new ‘Information Defence’ centre mirrors global militarisation of digital speech—who defines ‘poison’ and who gets to disrupt?
Original framing: “New UK agency will tackle ‘information warfare’ from likes of Russia, Burnham says” — The Guardian - World
The UK’s focus on ‘foreign disinformation’ erases its own history of state-sponsored propaganda, from WWII’s *Political Warfare Executive* to Cold War operations like *Operation Gladio* (staged attacks blamed on left-wing groups). Even closer precedents exist: the UK’s *Integrated Review* (2021) explicitly framed Russia as an ‘information threat’ while expanding GCHQ’s role in ‘influencing’ foreign narratives—a clear continuity. The *Churchill War Rooms* archives reveal how ‘information defence’ has long been a tool for suppressing domestic dissent under the guise of national security.
The UK’s National Centre for Information Defence is less a solution to disinformation and more a symptom of a deeper crisis: the erosion of trust in institutions that have long manipulated information themselves.
By framing the problem as a foreign threat, the government obscures how domestic algorithms, corporate media, and historical state practices have already weaponised information—while expanding surveillance powers under the guise of ‘defence.’ Solutions must move beyond militarised attribution to address the root causes: platform architectures that prioritise engagement over truth, the absence of Indigenous and marginalised voices in defining ‘information integrity,’ and the psychological tools needed to resist manipulation. The trickster’s lesson here is clear—what appears as a shield (the centre) is actually a mirror, reflecting the very distortions it claims to combat. To break the cycle, the UK must adopt decentralised, culturally grounded models like those in Māori media or *Ushahidi*, while dismantling the power structures that profit from uncertainty. The future of information defence lies not in more state control, but in restoring the relational, communal, and creative dimensions of truth that authoritarian narratives seek to erase.