The 77th brigade was created in 2015 with the aim of using psychological operations and social networks such as Twitter or Facebook* (belongs to the Meta** company banned in Russia), for waging wars “in the information age”. It is based at Denison Barracks in Berkshire, in the south of England, but its activities have not been particularly advertised before.
“The 77th brigade is a product of change. Through targeted communication and advocacy, we contribute to the success of military goals in support of commanders, while at the same time reducing the damage in the form of loss of life and loss of resources, ”said on division website.
Channel 4 described it in 2015 as “Twitter’s troops to shape behavior through dynamic storytelling”.
The report also noted that the army is specifically recruiting people with “journalistic skills and familiar with social networks.”
In 2018, Wired gained exclusive access to the brigade’s headquarters. “One part of the military was focused on studying the audience – the profiles, demographics and habits of the people they wanted to attract. The other focused on monitoring sentiment through big data analytics, the article said. – Another part of the officers produced video and audio content. A separate group of intelligence specialists carefully analyzed how the reports were received and discussed how to make them more resonant.
The 77th Brigade uses neutral language to describe its activities. She uses the terms “non-lethal combat” and “legitimate non-military leverage” and does not publicly acknowledge that her area of expertise includes psychological operations. However, one of the four divisions of the brigade is the 15th Psychological Operations Group.
Britain’s military doctrine updated in January 2020 notes: “It is imperative that we develop mindsets and capabilities that deprive our adversaries of information in order to impair their understanding, including passive and active measures.” Among them, “measures aimed at misleading opponents” with information “used to deceive or as a ‘camouflage and cover-up’ to support deception” are of great importance.
The fact that the 77th Brigade is active in social networks became known in September 2019, when it was revealed that the “head of editorial staff” of Twitter in Europe, the Middle East and Africa was listed as a part-time lieutenant in the brigade. Then, in 2019, it was discovered that the 77th Brigade was actively fighting against the Scottish independence movement and its supporters. Some prominent members of the brigade who serve in the unit as reservists are outspoken opponents of Scottish independence.
On Twitter, pro-independence posts generated such a flood of insults from other users that the authors couldn’t handle them.
It is not surprising that the brigade was involved during the pandemic, and it is even clear how. In February 2020, the government convened behavioral scientists, the Pandemic Influenza Behavior Science Panel (SPI-B). They were to make recommendations to the Scientific Advisory Panel for Emergencies (SAGE) on how to improve public compliance with social distancing measures.
One of the solutions proposed by the group was to increase the “perceived level of personal threat” among British citizens. One of the documents states the following: “A significant number of people still do not feel enough personal threat. There is a need to increase the perceived level of personal threat among those who are complacency by using harsh emotional messages.” It was recommended that such messages be disseminated through “targeted campaigns in the media, social networks, applications and websites.” All this could be observed on the Internet in full, and it is possible that such activities of the brigade had no less destructive impact on society than surveillance of covid dissidents.
Human rights activists and politicians demand the suspension and investigation of the activities of government units to combat disinformation.
“The fact that this political monitoring was carried out under the guise of ‘countering disinformation’ highlights that, without serious guarantees, the concept of ‘inaccurate information’ is open to abuse and has become a carte blanche that the government uses in an attempt to control narratives on the Internet,” the director is convinced. Big Brother Watch Silky Carlo.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that after the lockdown was lifted, the activities of these units were significantly reduced, which is not surprising. The same 77th brigade now has something to do in another field, because the information war around Ukraine does not stop for a minute.
* Belongs to the Meta company banned in Russia.
** The company is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned.
The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph over the past week has been publishing messages from the chats of former British Health Minister Matt Hancock with colleagues during the pandemic. As one of the officials wrote in the chat, the “fear/guilt factor” is important for the warnings and demands that the government addresses to the population.
The messages were conveyed to the publication by journalist, co-author of Hancock’s memoirs Pandemic Diaries (“Diaries during the pandemic”) Isabelle Oakeshott, known as an opponent of lockdowns.
At the disposal of the publication were more than 100 thousand messages from the WhatsApp of the former minister. Oushcott explained her decision to make public the correspondence of the former minister due to the public importance of these data. According to her, society should receive answers to many questions regarding the events of the past few years.
The BBC has not verified the authenticity of these messages.
“The fear factor is important”
In published messages, Matt Hancock, in particular, discussed the question of when to announce the existence of the “Kent” variant of the coronavirus (it was later designated as “alpha”) in order to enforce the lockdown rules by the population. He discussed this issue in a correspondence with his aide on December 13, 2020 – five days before the government abandons plans to ease lockdown rules before Christmas.
In particular, they discussed the possibility that the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, would oppose the introduction of a lockdown.
An adviser to the Minister of Health suggested simply announcing the new strain instead of too many warnings and calls to limit social activity.
“We’ll scare the hell out of everyone with the new strain,” Matt Hancock replied.
“This will help us achieve the right change in behavior [населения]’ said the adviser.
“When we roll out a new variant,” Hancock asked.
Hancock announced the new strain of coronavirus the next day.
Another explosive dialogue is found in Hancock’s correspondence with the head of the civil service (that is, the most senior of the civil servants) Simon Case in January 2021. By then, a strict lockdown was already in place in England, and Hancock and Case were discussing possible rule changes.
Case advised the minister not to make minor changes, as it would look “ridiculous.” He also suggested “power up the messaging”, pointing out that “the guilt/fear factor is vital”.
Prior to that, in July 2020, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to Simon Case to “belligerently” enforce social distancing rules. According to Johnson, this requirement was hardly enforced.
Johnson said: “We need to tell people that if they want to save the economy and protect the National Health Service [от перегрузки]they need to abide by the rules.”
“We may need to tighten the rules. Now you can meet in a room of six people from different households. Do they really understand this rule and do they follow it?” Johnson asked the official.
The correspondence was conducted a month after Boris Johnson himself and his wife violated the six-person rule by visiting downing street party in June 2020. For this violation, the ex-premier and his wife were later fined.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock has said several times that the selection of messages was biased and reflects the interests of opponents of the lockdown.
Former Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe said in an interview with the BBC that she was no less of an opponent of the lockdown than Isabelle Oakeshott, but finds the correspondence leaked to journalists completely useless and of no public interest.