Andy Burnham’s New Information Unit Is Raising A Chilling Question About Who Gets To Define The T...

Andy Burnham has announced a new National Centre for Information Defence, giving security chiefs the task of detecting, attributing and disrupting hostile-state information attacks against Britain. The threat is real: foreign governments can use bots, fabricated material, artificial intelligence and covert influence networks to manipulate democratic societies. But Burnham’s wider speech contained language that makes the debate considerably more uncomfortable. He attacked what he called a negative “narrative of decline” surrounding Britain and promised new architecture to confront the “poisonous tide” of information warfare. So where does national security end and political dissent begin?