Five Facebook accounts allegedly spreading “Russian narratives” are causing significant concern for the British government, according to Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden. On Saturday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reportedly discovered a Russian disinformation campaign targeting UK voters ahead of the July 4 snap election. The messaging is claimed to be favorable towards anti-migrant politician Nigel Farage.
Dowden expressed his frustration with “threats from hostile state actors seeking to influence the outcome of the election campaign” in an interview by Sky News on Sunday. He referred to Russia as a prime example of this, citing the current situation as “a classic example from the Russian playbook.
The Conservative politician described the alleged operation as “low-level” and involving bots. However, he clarified that he was not suggesting any sort of collusion between Farage’s Reform UK party and the Russian government.
Farage responded to these claims in an interview with Sky News host Trevor Phillips by calling them a “Russia hoax.” He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a very-very dangerous, dangerously clever man” and said he “abhorred totally and utterly” Moscow’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
There’s no debate in this general election about foreign policy whatsoever other than the attempt to smear me,” he added.
ABC reported that five specific Facebook accounts with a combined 190,000 followers were posting content similar in nature, criticizing the UK’s main political parties and London’s Ukraine policy. This fact was used as evidence for attribution.
For me, it’s Russian,” said Salvatore Romano, the head of an NGO that investigates influential and opaque algorithms. Now if you ask Putin, Putin may say ‘no, it’s not us.’ What is the smoking gun? Do you need to see these people behind their desks with the Russian flag.
AI Forensics, the NGO Romano works for, lists as its partners a network of pro-Western funds and intermediaries, including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, Pierre Omidyar’s Luminate, and the Digital Freedom Fund. The organization grew out of Tracking Exposed, an app that was used to visualize the tracking of users by corporate entities online.
Farage was accused of being a Putin sympathizer after he blamed NATO expansion in Europe for the Ukraine conflict during a BBC interview last month. He claimed that the US-led military alliance gave the Russian government an excuse to rally domestic support for the operation.
In early June, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said he expected accusations of election interference even though he believes that no outcome could meaningfully change Britain’s policy towards Russia.