During an annual threat update, the head of Britain\u2019s domestic intelligence agency said the Russian-owned English-language broadcasters RT and Sputnik \u201ccame in pretty strongly around the time of the referendum\u201d with biased anti-migration and anti-EU reports.<\/p>\n
He said there had also been \u201ca second line of interference attempted through [internet] trolls\u201d: an unspecified number of fake social media accounts, operating largely on X, that had sought to influence the result.<\/p>\n
Neither tactic was particularly sophisticated or successful, the spy chief said. There was a big difference between \u201cwhat may have been attempted and what actually resulted\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both interference attempts have been previously cited in studies released in the years after the Brexit vote. The digital campaign group 89up said RT and Sputnik had published 261 mostly misleading articles highlighting immigration and other anti-EU issues that achieved 134m potential page impressions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other studies have reported on a \u201ctroll army\u201d of state-linked Russian accounts tweeting about the referendum in the run-up to the vote, though estimates of numbers active have varied wildly from 54 to 150,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n Burnham had first returned to the issue on Sunday, during a podcast interview, though at first it was unclear whether the prime minister had been given new intelligence on a topic that had largely been considered forgotten.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked the question coming to Downing Street: \u2018Was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia?\u2019 And I\u2019ve had the clear answer that yes, there was,\u201d said the prime minister, implying he had a discussion or briefing on the issue.<\/p>\n A day later, however, he backed off when challenged by the Conservatives on whether this meant he regarded the Brexit<\/a> vote as illegitimate, and he did not supply any additional information in the Commons.<\/p>\n On Tuesday Downing Street said it had been confirmed that Russia interfered in the 2019 general election and it was \u201cinconceivable that they didn\u2019t in 2016\u201d. But the prime minister\u2019s spokesperson added: \u201cWe don\u2019t believe it was successful in the British referendum in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n
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