MI5 Confirms Russian Interference in Brexit Referendum
Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, confirmed on Tuesday that the Kremlin attempted to influence the 2016 Brexit referendum through social media and television reports. However, he emphasized that this interference did not impact the outcome of the vote.
Context of the Interference
During an annual threat update, McCallum supported comments made by Andy Burnham, who had raised concerns about Russian interference over the past few days. He noted that continuing to debate the issue might give the Kremlin an unnecessary propaganda victory.
McCallum stated that Russian-owned English-language broadcasters RT and Sputnik were particularly active around the time of the referendum, disseminating biased anti-migration and anti-EU content. He also mentioned a second line of interference involving internet trolls, specifically fake social media accounts on X, which aimed to sway public opinion.
““There is a big difference between what may have been attempted and what actually resulted,” McCallum said.
Details of the Interference Attempts
Both tactics of interference have been referenced in studies conducted after the Brexit vote. The digital campaign group 89up reported that RT and Sputnik published 261 mostly misleading articles focusing on immigration and other anti-EU topics, which garnered 134 million potential page impressions. Other studies have indicated the presence of a “troll army” of state-linked Russian accounts tweeting about the referendum, with estimates of active accounts ranging from 54 to 150,000.
