London will ask the G7 to implement a mechanism to tackle misinformation

The United Kingdom would like the G7 to put in place a mechanism to deal quickly with “propaganda” and misinformation, mainly on behalf of Russia, Foreign Minister Dominique Raab said today.

This issue will be raised at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting to be held at London from tomorrow until Wednesday.

“We want the G7 to unite, with a mechanism that will quickly reconstruct, when we see these lies, this propaganda or the transmission of false news, to be able to (…) refute them and establish the truth, for the citizens of this country. “But also for Russia or China and the whole world,” he told reporters.

According to the Sunday Times, a study funded by the British Foreign Office found that “pro-Russian trolls” posted malicious comments on British websites and newspapers to give the impression that the public was supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine. They are then used by the Russian state media to show that British public opinion supports Moscow. The same tactic is used in the media of 14 other countries, some of which are members of the G7, such as France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, according to the newspaper.

This study will be presented on Tuesday in London, at the first meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers in two years.

The British Foreign Office recently summoned the Russian ambassador to London for explanations, as the British government appears “concerned by the Russian state’s tendency to adopt a malicious attitude”. It also announced on Saturday that it would provide εκατο 8m (,2 9.2m) for the implementation of the BBC International Service to combat misinformation.