Episode 9 - The Reality of State Surveillance and Digital Spying

<p>To wrap up Season 1 of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley reveal that the UK Covid Inquiry has selectively failed to publish inconvenient witness statements, and examine the continuing operation of the Government’s censorship units, plus new proposals that would enable the Government to determine which news sources are most visible online.</p><p>In particular they reveal that witness statements required by the Inquiry from Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, Ros Jones, a retired paediatric consultant from the Covid Vaccine Advisory Group and consultant pathologist, Dr Clare Craig, have been withheld from the public archive of witness statements. The common theme among these witness statements is that they criticised or raised concerns about the Government’s approach to information monitoring control, or about the Covid vaccination programme. Molly and Ben ask why evidence required to be submitted to a public inquiry has not subsequently been placed in the public domain.</p><p>The conversation then turns to the Counter Disinformation Unit, now known as the National Security Online Information Team. Drawing on reporting and investigations by Big Brother Watch, Molly and Ben consider its monitoring of online activity, its relationships with social media platforms and the implications of government bodies flagging lawful opinions and commentary for removal from the public square.</p><p>Finally, they examine the Government’s recent ‘Watch This Space’ green paper, which proposes to boost the online prominence given to news produced by ‘trustworthy’ public service broadcasters. They question its assumptions about trust, impartiality and misinformation, and ask whether it could further suppress independent and dissenting voices – particularly during periods of crisis or social unrest.</p><p>The episode concludes with Molly and Ben reflecting on the unusually low reach of certain of their Broken Custodians video clips relative to others, and question whether certain subjects, speakers or images are being suppressed.</p><p>Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.</p><p><br>--------------------------</p><p>📰 Subscribe to <a href="https://usforthem2020.substack.com" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Broken Custodians on Substack</a> for updates, news, and extras</p><p><br></p><p>📺 Prefer video? Watch on <a href="https://youtu.be/6JO4Wu68RAo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">YouTube</a></p><p><br></p><p>🌐 And follow us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/brokencustodianspodcast/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a> for clips, additional content and new episode announcements<br></p>