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		</div><p>The UK Cabinet Office is rebutting around 70 false narratives about coronavirus every week, the UK Culture Secretary has said.</p>
<p>Oliver Dowden told the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Parliament Committee in a virtual meeting that its disinformation unit was co-ordinating with other UK government departments to tackle fake news about the virus.</p>
<p>It comes amid concern about a number of false claims around the virus, most recently conspiracy theories linking it to 5G.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today we&#39;re taking evidence from <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverDowden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OliverDowden</a>, Secretary of State for <a href="https://twitter.com/DCMS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DCMS</a>.</p>
<p>We&#39;ll be asking about the Department&#39;s work tackling the impact of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID%E3%83%BC19?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVIDã¼19</a> on the digital, culture, media &; sport sectors.</p>
<p>Watch live from 2.30pm: <a href="https://t.co/ph7vwtvN5N">https://t.co/ph7vwtvN5N</a><a href="https://twitter.com/julianknight15?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@julianknight15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Covid19UK?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Covid19UK</a> <a href="https://t.co/3K4Fi6iben">pic.twitter.com/3K4Fi6iben</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (@CommonsDCMS) <a href="https://twitter.com/CommonsDCMS/status/1252895663689478144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Mr Dowden praised social media companies for <em>“how they have stepped up to the plate”</em> but said the DCMS had spoken to them about how they could <em>“beef up”</em> their systems, as well as addressing the speed of action and working out of hours.</p>
<p><em>“The biggest thing that struck me is just the need for speed of response,”</em> he said.</p>
<p><em>“If misinformation is out there, you know it’s a bit of a cliche, but it can be round the world in moments, so the need to not sort of say, ‘we’ll look into this and come back to it’ … we need fast action to nip this kind of stuff in the bud.”</em></p>
<p>When asked about the motivation of people propagating misinformation, Mr Dowden said it was a mix.</p>
<p><em>“I think there are some people that genuinely think, mistakenly, that gargling hot water or whatever the latest thing is, may help address Covid,”</em> the MP for Hertsmere explained.</p>
<p><em>“Now clearly we don’t want people to be taking that seriously because it risks them not taking appropriate actions but that sort of thing can gain traction.</em></p>
<p><em>“There’s always sort of malignant forces, people just trying to sow confusion, disinformation, just on an individualised basis, and of course there are other malign actors.”</em></p>
<p>When asked about Australian plans to force Google and Facebook to pay for news content, the Culture Secretary said he was<em> “aware in outline of the Australian scheme”</em> and that it was something he was looking into <em>“to understand the applicability potentially here”</em>.</p>
<p>Among the range of topics covered, Mr Dowden was also asked by UK MP Julie Elliott about failures in faster broadband, only for her connection to be interrupted.</p>
<p><em>“The irony,”</em> one participant could be heard saying.</p>
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