Foes to be hit with fake-news fightback

Countering Foreign ­Interference unit to target disinformation campaigns by strategic competitors such as China.

Home Affairs has flagged the need for powers to crack down on social media services such as China’s TikTok and WeChat

The Morrison government has vowed to inflict “reputational damage” on countries behind global disinformation campaigns as part of its war on fake news and foreign interference.

A new Countering Foreign ­Interference unit, in the foreign affairs department’s national ­security and intelligence branch, will work with like-minded countries to shine a spotlight on disinformation campaigns by strategic competitors such as China.

It will implement a diplomatic strategy to counter fake news with fact-based campaigns, and support plans to shame ­nations that spread disinformation harmful to Australian interests.

The unit will work with Home Affairs and the Office of National Intelligence, sharing information with international partners and developing multilateral responses.

Home Affairs has also flagged the need for further powers to crack down on social media services “that are extensions of ­social platforms in authoritarian states”.

It told a Senate inquiry that such platforms, which would include China’s WeChat and TikTok, “may require additional responses, as censorship and ­reduced privacy protections become additional concerns”.

The Morrison government is stepping up the nation’s ­response to foreign interference amid a wave of fake news about the coronavirus, and Chinese ­attempts to portray Australia as a racist country.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne told the UN’s ­Alliance for Multilateralism on Friday that Australia would tackle disinformation in the Indo-Pacific “through facts and transparency”.

“Countries that believe that good policymaking starts with facts must work together and stand together,” she said.

“We will beat this pandemic and reduce social tensions by ensuring truth and facts triumph over the sheer volume of falsehoods. We will do so by working together to uphold our values, our security and our sovereignty.”

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade submission to the Senate’s inquiry on foreign interference through ­social media said a pilot diplomatic strategy would show foreign interference actors that “their actions can and will be revealed and will generate a meaningful response”.

It would aim to convince perpetrators “that their actions will have costs which would outweigh the benefits, including through international reputational damage”.

The unit will work closely with partners in Southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific “with the aim of closing vulnerabilities and cultivating a less-­permissive environment for foreign interference in Australia’s near region”.

Developing nations and those heavily reliant on doing business with China are particularly vulnerable to Beijing’s fake news narratives.