Straight out of the Biden administration playbook, you might think. After all, Merrick Garland sicced the FBI on parents and Catholics who objected to Biden's policies, so maybe Keir Starmer is just using tactics he learned from looking across the pond.
But no, it was originally the Conservatives in Britain who started using psychological warfare tactics on the population during the COVID pandemic, and Starmer's government is just taking the idea one step further than they did.
Did you know that Government have been weaponizing Applied Behavioural Psychological tactics to frighten the public into mass compliance on #Lockdown #Masks and #Vaccines? This should make people stop and think about what's going on.
— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) April 9, 2021
From today's @ukcolumn news program: pic.twitter.com/rVJpsX7Bai
If you thought it was bad that governments used psychological warfare tactics against their own citizens, you can double your outrage now that the British government is deploying a special unit to track down dissenters against the migration policies of the UK government.
They are using the same tactics they use tracking down terrorists, because the politicians are terrified of dissent.
A Whitehall “disinformation” unit used tools created to hunt for jihadists to find critics of asylum hotels, The Telegraph can reveal
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 3, 2025
Read the full piece by Tony Diver here⤵️https://t.co/25vJWuJdWA pic.twitter.com/QrCcVGZqwY
Not so long ago, the technology being used to shut down conversation about migrants was used solely to prevent grisly beheading videos from popping up in social media feeds.
How quaint. What an innocent time, back when governments saw enemies of their civilization as enemies. Now they are opening their borders to those same people and deploying the anti-terrorist teams to hunt down Britons who object to the practice.
A Whitehall “disinformation” unit used tools created to hunt for jihadists to find critics of asylum hotels, The Telegraph can reveal.
The secretive team was this week revealed to have flagged “concerning” narratives about migrants to tech platforms during the Southport riots.
The disclosure prompted the Trump administration and US congressmen to warn of a free speech crackdown in Britain.
The Telegraph can now reveal that some of the tools used by the National Security and Online Information Team (NSOIT) were originally developed to hunt terrorists.
In 2017, ministers commissioned Faculty, an AI firm, to help search for recruitment videos posted by Isil.
At the time, use of the technology was strictly limited to stopping British social media users from encountering grisly beheading videos and calls to commit acts of terrorism.
And really, who could object to such a compassionate policy? So what if a few British women get sexually abused? Clearly, they had it coming, being colonizers and all. The Taliban have a legitimate gripe. Where are their niqabs, anyway?
The revelation that the team was using terrorist-hunting software to monitor posts about immigration policy will raise further concerns about “censorship” of the internet by Labour.
Mr Trump’s State Department said on Friday it was concerned about free speech in Britain, and would “closely monitor” the situation to ensure American companies were not censored.
A delegation of US congressmen met Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary, this week to make their fears of online censorship known.
We are, in all but name, having our rights being attacked by Western European powers. You may be disturbed, in an abstract way, by what Britons are having to suffer from their government, but as a practical matter, these policies extend to all corners of the world. The threat of massive fines and legal ramifications for "publishing" posts that these governments decide are incitement is enough to make social media companies think twice and apply censorship across the world.
The censorship may be explicit--removing content or users--or implicit--reducing the reach of posts in order to placate irate bureaucrats and politicians.
They are restricting our Constitutional rights, which is, in my view, an act of gray zone warfare. The Trump administration has sanctioned Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Justice, and should do the same with all government officials in any country who impinge on our rights.
The government is afraid. Only a scared government turns to totalitarianism and removes the rights of citizens over the feelings of foreigners. Trouble is coming for us because we rejected our responsibility to the country. https://t.co/1lGRxEUVeY
— Nick Buckley MBE (@NickBuckleyMBE) August 3, 2025
Totalitarian control of populations is spreading in countries that were once bastions of freedom. Under the Biden regime here in the United States, the government well all-in on censorship--often using foreign bureaucrats to silence American citizens here at home. Hot Air was censored outright occasionally--you couldn't search for some of our articles if certain keywords appeared--and the advertising cartels labeled us "unsafe" and suppressed our ability to monetize our content.
They tried to put us out of business.
The project continues, despite the Trump administration's efforts to halt it both domestically and internationally.
British MPs have launched an investigation into the Government’s use of “nudge tactics” to frighten the public into compliance with COOVID mandates after psychologists testified that the tactics were “grossly unethical.”https://t.co/9GWr6IRlpk
— Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) February 3, 2022
What happens abroad often has consequences here at home. I don't write about Britain solely because I am an Anglophile or for the historical connections between US and British politics. What happens there matters quite a bit to us here in the United States.
The political culture of the United States and other countries in the Anglosphere may be very different, but all countries in the Western world have overlapping legal structures and economies. That means what happens in the EU, Great Britain, and Australia often effects us here at home.
Not so long ago, I wouldn't have thought twice about visiting Great Britain. In fact, I always wanted to visit Wales and Scotland. I am even 1/4 Welsh from my mother's side.
Now? I certainly would think twice. I doubt that I would be in much danger--I am too small a fish for anybody over there to bother with--but I am quite certain that many of my writings would violate speech laws in the United Kingdom. I have committed so many non-crime hate speech violations that I would qualify for scrutiny, and probably have run afoul of criminal statutes many times.
It's just not worth the risk.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member