BBC Uses Misinformation To Hide Information About Its Disinformation Units

Nobody Does Disinformation Better Than The BBC’s ‘anti-disinformation’ Unit

The BBC Disinformation team claims to exist in order to weed out disinformation campaigns to expose them. Instead, what this team has become is not a disinformation team seeking out conspiracy theories but a team pushing disinformation.

In response to Freedom of Information (FOI) request: RFI20230403.

The BBC says:

Please be advised that the BBC does not have a UK based 'Disinformation Unit'. We do however have specialist correspondents within News and Current Affairs who have a responsibility for reporting on issues relating to disinformation.

BBC launches Disinformation Unit in India:

BBC News has launched a new ‘Disinformation Unit’ in India to uncover, analyse and report on the spread of fake news. A team of dedicated journalists will focus on highlighting false information, debunking viral social media content and investigate how and why it spreads. The team will provide audiences with useful tips and information on how to spot ‘fake news’ and prevent it from spreading further.

Audiences will also be able to report on any fake news they think should be investigated by messaging the BBC’s Disinformation Unit.

This newly launched Unit in India is an extension of the BBC’s continued commitment to combat misinformation, and is a part of the BBC Global Disinformation unit, which includes experienced journalists based in Africa and the UK.

Rebecca Skippage, Editor of BBC Disinformation, says: “Disinformation is a global issue that disregards boundaries of languages, platforms, cultures, and age groups. Unchecked news can affect health, society, and democracy. This new team of dedicated journalists will allow us to shine a light on misleading information and help people decide for themselves what to believe and what to mistrust.”

BBC Vacancies: Senior Journalist, BBC Disinformation Unit

Job Introduction BBC World Service, as part of BBC News, is an international multimedia broadcaster, delivering a wide range of language and regional services to serve global audiences. It uses multiple platforms to reach its weekly audience of 394 million across 42 languages. BBC World Service is committed to impartiality, and promotes access to independent and accurate news and provides media literacy training.

Challenging disinformation is a strategic objective for World Service, and it is now setting up a new Disinformation Unit to tackle fake news. Producing high-impact and original journalism, the unit will work closely with our six Indian language services, based in Delhi, to provide our global audiences with reliable news to spot disinformation and keep themselves immune from fake news. We are looking for a Senior Journalist to join the team in Delhi for a period of 8 months.

Role Responsibility As a Senior Journalist in the Disinformation team you will commission, fact check and edit content optimised for websites and social media platforms. You commission human interest stories that show the impact of disinformation and conspiracy theories on peoples lives. Other duties will include tracking and identifying trends in the spread of disinformation content, planning for coverage of big news events which might give rise to fake news and leading on the publishing of content into spaces where disinformation circulates.

Rebecca Skippage: Assistant Editor, BBC Monitoring

Rebecca Skippage established and leads the BBC's Disinformation Team and is an Editor with the BBC-wide Anti-Disinformation Unit.

The team covers and uncovers global disinformation trends, verifies and debunks viral social media content, and creates digital material to help people spot and avoid 'fake news'. Rebecca is currently with BBC Monitoring which tracks, translates and analyses media from over 150 countries and 100 languages.

I'm so pleased the BBC is not interested in misleading the public