Overview

• Leaked emails show NSOIT officials flagged social media posts about asylum seeker hotels, immigration and ‘two-tier’ policing to TikTok and other platforms, warning these posts were exacerbating tensions without requesting their removal.
• NSOIT operates under the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology led by Peter Kyle, evolved from the Covid-era Counter Disinformation Unit and enforces trend-monitoring duties under the Online Safety Act.
• Jim Jordan, chair of the US House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed TikTok to obtain the emails for an investigation into alleged foreign censorship of lawful speech.
• Big Brother Watch has called for an immediate probe into NSOIT, warning that a secretive government unit is spying on lawful political criticism without accountability.
• UK Government defends NSOIT’s trend-monitoring role under the Online Safety Act, saying it only flags content that breaches platforms’ own rules, and the US State Department has said it is monitoring Britain’s free speech developments with concern.