Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which Minister or official authorised the Counter Disinformation Unit to collect data related to public statements, social media and internet activity as part of the unit's work.

The Counter Disinformation Unit was established in 2019 as part of DCMS’s departmental responsibility for counter-disinformation, and as part of the government's manifesto commitment to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online while defending freedom of expression.

The monitoring of harmful disinformation narratives and trends, using publicly available information online, is an essential part of DCMS’ role in understanding the information environment and working with partners across government and with social media companies to counter narratives that have the potential to cause real world harm. The CDU reports regularly to ministers who have full oversight of the team’s work.