UK secretly buys influencers

(MENAFN) There is something deeply disturbing about a government secretly funding “freedom campaigns” by paying social media influencers, while binding them with non-disclosure agreements that prevent revealing who is really behind these efforts.

This is exactly what the UK Foreign Office has been exposed doing. An investigation by Declassified UK found that the British government covertly compensated dozens of foreign YouTube influencers to spread messages that align with Britain’s foreign policy objectives—framed under the seemingly noble causes of promoting democracy and fighting disinformation.

While these slogans sound positive, they serve as a way to disguise raw geopolitical aims with appealing language. In reality, this is a form of propaganda—slick, modern, and decentralized, but propaganda nonetheless.

This secretive campaign is not new; it continues a long tradition of the UK managing inconvenient narratives abroad. During the Cold War, the UK operated the Information Research Department (IRD), which quietly funded global news outlets, supported friendly academics, and even supplied material to George Orwell. Back then, the goal was to counter Soviet influence. Today, the targets have shifted to “Russian disinformation,” “violent extremism,” and “authoritarian propaganda,” but the methods remain strikingly similar.

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