British Prime Minister Theresa May is to agree to the creation of a “rapid response” government unit to fight perceived fake news, it has been reported.
The team will aim to identify and challenge stories they judge to be misleading or damaging, and will be based in the Cabinet Office, claims The Times.
According to Alex Aiken, executive director of the Government Communication Service (GCS), they aim “build a rapid response social media capability to deal quickly with disinformation and reclaim a fact-based public debate”.
In an article for PR Week, he listed the creation of the body as one of the challenges facing GCS.
“We are seeing changes in the way information is being processed and shared – a tech-savvy but disparate audience hungry for information and influenced by a small number of dominant opinion formers in the public eye,” he said.
Adding: “The real test for government communications is being nimble enough to respond to the many challenges thrown at it while remaining a reliable source of information.”