Try to be on the lookout, if you can, for “deep fakes.” Artificial intelligence can now help generate images and videos that are incredibly believable. In the war in Ukraine, US politics and Gaza we have seen them being pumped onto social media by bots and the army of supporters of one side or another. Once established, people can’t help but share them if they represent what the reader wants to believe or if they collaborate a conspiracy.
And then there is the deep web. Think of the internet as a deep well of information. 90% of us get our news and information from the surface. But lurking in the depths are secrets and spies. If an adversary can release information into those depths, it knows that gossip and sensationalism will do the rest to infiltrate mainstream media. Russia has often used this method to spread Kompromat (hacked compromising information from a person or government) to destabilise elections. In 2017 Russia hacked one of Macron’s special advisors and released details of his views on political rivals two days before polling day. The unit alleged to be responsible was Russian GRU unit 74455.
Our last UK 2019 election saw Russia use the Reddit website to post selective excerpts of hacked UK trade talks details with the US. Jeremy Corbyn even went as far as to brandish them at a press conference.
Our precious democracy is thus under attack like never before. Conspiracy and extremes are magnified by social media. Politics gets ever more personal and angry. The good news is that the UK is ahead of the pack when it comes to protecting our elections. We have GCHQ as the vanguard. The UK’s biggest intelligence agency employs some of the finest brains in the world to seek out and spot the agents of state-backed misinformation and hacking.
The National Cyber Security Centre was set up in 2016 when I was Security Minister. The NCSC provides a single point of contact for SMEs, government agencies, public and business. We also established the Defending Democracy Taskforce in 2022, which is leading efforts to protect our elections.
But what tips can I give the readers? I recommend you stick with the mainstream media. While we may not always agree with the interpretation of the facts most mainstream media will agree on the facts themselves. But we must also expect those very same media outlets to keep us safe by asking them to question the provenance of their sources of information. And always demand, as a viewer or reader, that media outlets make clear who a contributor is and if they are paid or backed by one group or another. It is more important than you know.
Ben Wallace was secretary of state for defence 2019-2023
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
