According to The Times, the British signals-intelligence service (Government Communications Headquarters, aka GCHQ [photo]), has been tasked with countering anti-vaccine arguments on the internet.

The British government is quite convinced that such arguments could only have been planted by its hereditary enemy, Moscow. It therefore authorized its intelligence services to adapt the tools used against the propaganda of the Islamic Emirate (Daesh) to tackle this new enemy.

The GCHQ has the ability to disrupt social media accounts and respond anonymously on forums. It does not, however, have the possibility of intruding directly in accounts hosted by its "Five Eyes" allies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA). It acts in concert with the 77th Army Brigade created to counter "Russian propaganda" [1]. The 430-man unit works in conjunction with a rapid response team out of the Prime Minister’s Office.

It should be recalled that Russia has announced a campaign to test a vaccine against Covid-19 on 40,000 volunteers, but there is no question that this drug will be used in the West.

Source : “GCHQ in cyberwar on anti-vaccine propaganda. Spies tackle disinformation linked to Russia”, Lucy Fisher, Chris Smyth, The Times, November 09, 2020.

[1] “British army to create a unit against Russian propaganda”, Translation Anoosha Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 6 February 2018.