Russia spends around £1.3 billion a year pumping lies into British homes, forging the branding of the BBC and universities and stoking unrest after horrific events. Tiptoeing around that for a decade left Britain wide open, and a National Centre for Information Defence finally brings scattered efforts under one roof. Detecting, attributing and disrupting hostile state attacks is how a democracy defends itself.
Britain already has NSOIT, RICU, the 77th Brigade and a dozen more outfits watching the information space, so another body is about control, not defense. Past counter-disinformation units flagged MPs, journalists and ordinary citizens for lawful, truthful criticism of the government. Build the machine first and the targets get chosen later — that is how a Ministry of Truth is born.
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