Could it be true?
An Australian media organisation has exposed a Nigerian-run campaign to spread Kremlin talking points in support of the UK’s Reform Party. If anything demonstrates the global nature of misinformation, it’s the revelation this weekend by Australia’s ABC News that five pages on the Meta platform were posting coordinated messages in support of Nigel Farage, calling him “the people’s champion”. Experts said the data had “all the hallmarks of a Russian influence operation”. Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, agreed that the pages looked like “a classic example from the Russian playbook”. But even if it’s true, how seriously should we take this? The pages have a combined 190,000 followers, many of whom could be bots themselves. In other words, not many UK voters would have seen the content. If foreign interference is taking place, either it’s at a low level or we’ve only identified the tip of the iceberg. Let’s hope it’s the former.
Alexi Mostrous is Tortoise's Investigations Editor
