Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt MP, who commissioned the guide, has warned that:
The proliferation of conspiracy theories across the UK is deeply disturbing. They are deliberate campaigns to spread disinformation and fear [...] If they go unchallenged we risk the public being conned and their wellbeing potentially damaged. These campaigns are also a threat to the health of our democracy. It is essential that we give the public and their representatives the tools they need to combat this phenomenon."And claimed the aim of the new guide was to:
protect the public from the damaging effects of misinformation and safeguard the integrity of our democratic process,"Which sounds just lovely, doesn't it?
Oh, and just in case any of you are still caught up in the party politics illusion, the guide has full cross-party support, the Shadow Leader of the House called it "a must-read".
The report was co-written by "experts" representing several non-governmental organisations, and fact-checkers including:
- FullFact - funded by (among others) Google, Facebook and the Open Society Foundation.
- The Institute for Strategic Dialogue - funded by (among others) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Facebook, over a dozen national governments and the UN.
- Global Network on Extremism and Technology - The academic research arm of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a thinktank "designed to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms"...and which is funded by (among others) Facebook, Amazon, Youtube and Microsoft.
Comment: Whilst there have been a number of suspect fires around the world of late, considering the problems with electric vehicles bursting into flames, this fire may have a more mundane explanation.
Notably, the UK has issued new safety guidelines with regards to enclosed car parks, electric vehicles and charging stations, which resulted in an EV driver being refused entry to a hospital carpark: