Military operatives from the United Kingdom's "information warfare" brigade secretly spied on British citizens who criticized the policies imposed by the government during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a Daily Mail report, several military units worked to compile dossiers on anyone with a substantial following who questioned the way the country's pandemic response.
The 77th Brigade of the Ministry of Defense was the most secretive unit to work on this issue, using "non-lethal engagement and legitimate non-military levers as a means to adapt behaviours of adversaries." However, the 77th Brigade went beyond its mandate of only going after foreign entities.
"I developed the impression the Government were more interested in protecting the success of their policies than uncovering any potential foreign interference, and I regret that I was a part of it," charged an anonymous source who worked for the brigade during the lockdown.
In fact, the whistleblower said the most "surprising" thing during the pandemic was the lack of public response to the number of attacks orchestrated by the state against "basic freedoms."
COVID lockdowns are an existential threat to freedom. This is why I was one of the first to publicly criticize lockdowns in March 2020. Freedom dies when a people submit to fear from politicians and the media, when they believe the powerful can save them.https://t.co/jzJImBECrF
— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) January 29, 2023
"The fact that this political monitoring happened under the guise of 'countering misinformation' highlights how, without serious safeguards, the concept of 'wrong information' is open to abuse and has become a blank cheque the Government uses in an attempt to control narratives online," the whistleblower said, stressing that these government units are detrimental to democracy.
The whistleblower's information was allegedly corroborated by extensive documentation obtained by the Big Brother Watch (BBW) group, which fights for civil liberties in the United Kingdom.
After BBW Director Silkie Carlo learned of the military units allegedly combating disinformation, she called for a full investigation into the case.
