Foreign countries are flooding social media with AI-manipulated videos to undermine Western support for Ukraine, Yvette Cooper will warn on Tuesday.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary will urge other countries to help Britain fight an “information war” as officials warn that Russia is using forged documents and deepfake content to further its geopolitical goals.
The Foreign Office had already warned this Russian agencies are operating a vast disinformation network known as DoppelgangerWhich has spread false rumors about topics including the health of the Princess of Wales and Western funding of Israel.
Cooper will say: “Across Europe we are seeing an increase in hybrid threats – from physical to cyber – that are designed to undermine critical national infrastructure, undermine our interests and interfere in our democracies for the benefit of malicious foreign states.”
The speech – which will celebrate 100 years since the Locarno treaties signed after the First World War between the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia – comes at one of the most sensitive moments in the Ukraine war.
With Donald Trump placing renewed emphasis on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, both sides are struggling to shape Washington’s thinking.
US and Ukrainian officials have been locked in talks for the past few days without any apparent breakthrough, leading Trump to accuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of not reading the proposals on the table.
Zelensky spent Monday in Downing Street, where Keir Starmer called talks that also included French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Cooper spent Monday in Washington, where he met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In comments clearly directed at Moscow, Cooper will say: “A hundred years ago, such malicious actors or state-sponsored disruptors could rely on expertly forged documents or carefully crafted stories to manipulate public opinion, but today’s technology is lowering the barrier to entry – meaning more actors, with fewer skills, can work on behalf of regimes abroad.
“They can interfere in free and fair elections, weakening Western interests and losing allies on the global stage. By flooding social media with generative AI and manipulated videos, they can gradually undermine support for our key allies like Ukraine with lies – undermining our collective resolve to support Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s illegal aggression.”
She would say that disinformation is being used not only to directly undermine Ukraine, but also to increase social division over issues such as gender and migration.
“This is not about legitimate debate on controversial issues. Many people in the UK have strong views on migration, gender and climate. But those are our debates – not for foreign states to use as their playground, trying to sow division to further their own interests.”
Officials point to disinformation campaigns around the world that they say were carried out by hostile states.
These also include the creation of fake websites During the Moldovan elections In September he appeared to be from the PAS party and included fanciful policies such as raising the retirement age and extending the length of military service.
