Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ordered work to begin on a new UK centre designed to counter foreign disinformation and deepfakes, warning that hostile states are exploiting artificial intelligence to spread an increasingly dangerous 'poisonous tide' of false information.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, 22 September, Burnham said the National Centre for Information Defence would 'detect, attribute and disrupt' hostile-state information attacks while strengthening Britain's ability to defend its democracy.
UK Targets a 'Poisonous Tide'
Burnham used his first UN General Assembly speech as prime minister to accuse Russia of conducting an 'industrial-scale assault' on the information environment in Britain and allied countries.
He said Russian agencies had deployed bots and fake websites, falsified newspaper articles and forged the branding of 28 British organisations. Burnham also accused Moscow of amplifying far-right narratives and attempting to interfere in the UK's 2019 general election.
'The Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information,' Burnham said, describing an 'insidious campaign' designed to prey on people's fears.
He argued that such operations could reach directly into people's homes and influence how they viewed their country and communities, 'creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair'.
The prime minister warned that artificial intelligence could multiply the threat by making manipulated content easier to create and distribute at scale.
What Will the New Centre Do?
Burnham said he had tasked UK security chiefs with beginning work on the National Centre for Information Defence rather than announcing an already operational agency.
The centre will work with intelligence agencies, government departments, police and social media companies. Its central mission will be identifying hostile information operations, determining who is behind them and disrupting their spread.
The government also wants to improve national resilience by helping communities recognise and combat disinformation before false narratives gain traction.
Burnham linked the problem to wider economic and social pressures, arguing that people struggling with living costs and young people outside education, employment or training could be more vulnerable to manipulation.
'When inequalities grow too wide, our societies are at greater risk,' he told delegates.
AI Makes the Information War Harder
The announcement comes as governments increasingly confront deepfakes and AI-generated material capable of making fabricated speeches, images and events appear authentic.
Burnham said Britain would use its experience to help other countries defend themselves. He said the UK had already worked with Moldova to protect election security against Russian interference.
His proposal extends beyond removing individual false posts. The planned centre is intended to give Britain a coordinated system for detecting campaigns and responding to information attacks attributed to hostile states.
Burnham said previous governments had surrendered too much ground to those spreading a 'negative and corrosive narrative' about Britain.
For ordinary internet users, the initiative reflects a growing national-security problem: distinguishing authentic information from increasingly convincing manipulation. As generative AI makes fake material cheaper and faster to produce, the government is betting that identifying its origins and disrupting coordinated campaigns will become as important as debunking individual claims.
