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By Jack Stubbs
LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The leak and distribution of
classified UK-U.S. trade documents online is tied to a previous
Russian disinformation campaign, social media site Reddit said
on Friday, fuelling fears that Moscow is seeking to interfere in
Britain's upcoming election.
Britain's opposition Labour Party seized on the leaked
documents on Nov. 27, saying they showed the ruling
Conservatives were plotting to offer the state-run National
Health Service (NHS) for sale in trade talks with Washington.
The NHS is much loved by Britons and has become an important
issue in the country's election campaign, in which Labour trails
the Conservatives despite cutting its lead in some polls.
But researchers told Reuters on Monday that the way the
documents were first shared on Reddit and then promoted online
closely resembled a disinformation campaign uncovered earlier
this year.
That operation -- known as Secondary Infektion -- attempted
to spread false narratives across at least 30 online platforms,
and stemmed from a network of social media accounts which
Facebook said "originated in Russia."
"We were recently made aware of a post on Reddit that
included leaked documents from the UK," Reddit said in a
statement. "We investigated this account and the accounts
connected to it, and today we believe this was part of a
campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia."
The company said it had identified and suspended 61 accounts
which attempted to further promote the leaked papers.
"All of these accounts have the same shared pattern as the
original Secondary Infektion group detected, causing us to
believe that this was indeed tied to the original group," it
said.
A Labour spokesman declined to comment on how the party
obtained the leaked documents or ties to the Russian campaign.
"These documents reveal the plot against our NHS. And of
course neither the UK nor the U.S. government have denied their
authenticity," he said. "Our releasing them to journalists was
clearly in the public interest."
The British government said in a statement it was "already
looking into the matter" with support from the National Cyber
Security Centre, part of the GCHQ signals intelligence agency.
"Online platforms should take responsibility for content
posted on them, and we welcome the action Reddit have taken
today," it said.
Britain goes to the polls next week in an election called by
Prime Minister Boris Johnson to try to break the Brexit deadlock
in parliament more than three years since the country voted to
leave the European Union.
The country's security agencies have warned that Russia and
other countries may attempt to disrupt the vote with
cyberattacks or divisive political messages on social media.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied allegations of election
meddling. Officials in Moscow were not immediately available for
comment after hours on Friday.
(Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Additional reporting by Raphael
Satter in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis)