Do government efforts to tackle misinformation threaten free speech?
The UK government is establishing the National Centre for Information Defence, announced by Prime Minister Andy Burnham in September 2026, to detect, attribute and disrupt hostile state disinformation and deepfakes, working with intelligence agencies, police and social media firms. It builds on the Online Safety Act 2023, now partially in force, which requires platforms to address illegal and harmful content with Ofcom enforcement. The policy focuses on foreign interference and public resilience but has drawn criticism that it risks chilling lawful domestic debate.
5 Opinions
Giving out misinformation is dangerous, it's getting worse as the years go by. Free speech, giving an opinion is not so bad. Misinformation is spreading lies, possibly slanderous, lies from someone stopped parents from vaccinating their children, now measles is back, with a fatality. We need more honesty available, so we can know the truth from the lies.
There is a risk of abuse, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have measures to prevent misinformation, just there should be some independent oversight to prevent overreach.
You’ve already covered this recently.
Wide open to abuse. The word itself is a nebulous weasel word. To be used exclusively by weasels, for weasels.
The biggest source of misinformation is government. Their effort is to censor information and control population. And everyone is entitled to hold own opinion, regardless how big heresy against current official narration it will be. Freedom of speech and freedom of thought are bare basis of democracy.