Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has warned that foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) by hostile states and non state actors has come to represent an “existential threat” to democratic societies, and called for urgent reforms to the UK’s domestic structures, legislation and public communications.
In its report, Disinformation diplomacy: How malign actors are seeking to undermine democracy, published on 27 March 2026, the Committee concluded that countries including Russia, China and Iran were systematically exploiting the information environment to erode trust in democratic institutions, while the UK’s response remained fragmented and under resourced.
Drawing on extensive evidence from academics, civil society organisations, social media companies, international partners and UK Government departments, the Committee expressed concern that the UK itself is increasingly exposed to foreign interference, including through social media platforms and online political discourse.
The UK does not currently have a single body with overall responsibility for detecting, analysing and responding to disinformation threats, the committee reported.
Responsibilities for countering malign disinformation were split across multiple Government departments, creating “unnecessarily fragmented” delivery and a lack of clear leadership.
As a result, it recommended the creation of a National Counter Disinformation Centre, placed on a statutory footing and overseen by Parliament, drawing comparisons with Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency and France’s VIGINUM service.
Weaknesses in the legal framework
The Committee also raised concerns about the effectiveness of existing legislation, including the National Security Act 2023 and the Online Safety Act 2023, in addressing foreign interference online.
It noted the difficulty of meeting the “foreign power condition” required to establish the foreign interference offence, describing this as creating a high evidential bar that risked making the offence impractical in many cases.
The report called for an urgent review of the foreign interference offence to ensure it was fit for purpose and did not leave a loophole for hostile state backed campaigns operating through bots, intermediaries or opaque online networks.
The Committee also urged the government to consider stronger legislative protections against AI generated disinformation, including deepfakes, and to explore the creation of statutory personality rights to protect individuals’ likenesses.
The report was critical of social media companies’ efforts to counter disinformation, citing a lack of transparency around algorithms that shape public discourse.
While platforms told the Committee they took action against coordinated inauthentic behaviour, the report argued that without meaningful access for regulators and independent researchers it remained difficult to assess whether platforms were effectively addressing foreign interference.
The Committee recommended that platforms be required to publish algorithmic transparency data, provide free access to researchers, and produce annual reports on artificial amplification and foreign interference.
Finally, the Committee stressed that media freedom was a key defence against disinformation and warned that declining funding for independent media outlets was weakening democratic resilience.
It highlighted the importance of the BBC World Service as a counterweight to state backed disinformation, welcoming recent funding increases but cautioning that inflation meant these likely amounted to a flat settlement in real terms.
Domestically, the Committee argued that public awareness of disinformation threats remained low and called for a national public education campaign and a publicly accessible portal documenting major disinformation campaigns.
Recommendations for government
Among its wide ranging recommendations, the Committee called on the Government to:
• establish a statutory National Counter Disinformation Centre;
• review the foreign interference offence under the National Security Act;
• strengthen algorithmic transparency obligations for platforms;
• improve coordination across Government departments;
• invest more heavily in media literacy for all age groups; and
• increase funding for counter disinformation capability as part of national security spending.
The Government is expected to respond to the report in due course.
