Twitter refused majority of removal requests from Covid spying unit

More than half of the posts reported to Twitter by a secretive counter-disinformation government unit did not actually break its rules.

Figures passed to The Telegraph suggest that the social media firm refused nearly six out of 10 requests from the Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) – and have fuelled concerns that the secretive cell has been asking for the removal of more posts than it should.

Silkie Carlo, director of the freedom of speech campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the figures exposed the CDU’s “zeal for censorship”.

The Telegraph previously reported that the CDU and another government unit – the now-defunct Rapid Response Unit – have been working with social media companies in an attempt to curtail discussion of controversial lockdown policies during the pandemic.

Monitoring legitimate posts

The units were set up with the apparent aim of combatting disinformation, but disclosures obtained under data protection laws show that they have been monitoring legitimate posts objecting to vaccine passports, lockdown and the mass vaccination of children against Covid-19.

Last week, Twitter owner Elon Musk criticised the CDU’s activities as “terrible” – in a one-word response to The Telegraph’s reports.

Now it appears the company, acquired by Mr Musk in October last year, has been resisting the CDU’s removal requests behind the scenes.

In an email to Big Brother Watch, passed to this newspaper, the technology firm revealed that between November 2020 and February this year, the CDU contacted Twitter multiple times about Covid-19 and vaccine disinformation and content “relating to prisoners of war in the Ukraine conflict”, as well as privacy issues and “incorrect actions” on UK government accounts.

Majority did not violate rules

However, when Twitter’s Trust and Safety team examined them, just 42 per cent of posts the CDU reported to Twitter were found to violate its rules.

“No action was taken in the remainder of cases,” said the letter, which was signed by Twitter’s deputy head of UK government affairs.

The rate at which Twitter acts on the CDU’s requests stands in stark contrast to the unit’s success rate with other social media firms.

Earlier this week, the Government said social media firms acted on more than 90 per cent of the reports it made to them during the pandemic. Actions include deleting posts and using algorithms to ensure they were seen by fewer people.

The admission alarmed freedom of speech campaigners, who fear that the CDU has too much power over what posts are and are not allowed to circulate on social media.

In contact ‘hourly’

It is not clear how many times the CDU reported content to Twitter or to other social media platforms during the pandemic.

However, Sarah Connolly, leader of the unit, has described how it was in contact “hourly” at some points and said CDU requests would go straight to “the top of the pile” for social media firms to “act” on.

Campaigners expressed alarm at the rate at which the CDU’s recommendations were accepted – and how many posts it was prepared to flag to Twitter, even though they were not in breach of its terms of service.

Ms Carlo said: “This shows that the CDU’s zeal for censorship was so extreme that they were not only flagging lawful speech for censorship but speech that couldn’t even be found to violate highly restrictive Silicon Valley content rules.

“This casts serious doubt on the legitimacy and lawfulness of the unit’s activities, which are ongoing. The Counter-Disinformation Unit should be immediately suspended and subjected to an inquiry, to ensure public resources are being used appropriately and Britons’ right to free speech is being protected.”

Calls for inquiry

MP David Davis, whose comments have also been logged in reports sent to the CDU, has also called for an inquiry by the powerful Public Accounts Committee.

A government source said it was wrong to draw conclusions from the disparity between the number of posts Twitter removed at the request of the CDU, versus the number removed by other social media companies.

They said that Twitter had different terms and conditions and the CDU had been trying to understand the similarities and differences between them.

A government spokesman said: “As we have repeatedly made clear, the primary purpose of the unit was to track narratives, not individuals. It does not have and has never had the power to remove online content – on occasions where it encountered content considered to be in breach of social media platforms’ own terms of service, it was referred to them for consideration.”

Twitter could not be reached for comment.