UK government secretly paid foreign YouTube stars for ‘propaganda’

The UK government is secretly paying foreign YouTube stars to publish “propaganda” videos, Declassified can reveal.

A three-year investigation has found that online influencers are made to sign legal contracts banning them from disclosing the government’s involvement.

Whitehall officials give “feedback” on each video before the influencers are allowed to publish them. 

The work is coordinated by a London-based media agency, Zinc Network Ltd, on behalf of the Foreign Office in a deal worth nearly £10m of public money. 

Co-founded by a former Conservative Party spin doctor, the company has won lucrative contracts from the UK, US and Australian governments, becoming a major player in Western influence operations.

Zinc has previously been exposed for secretly setting up Muslim news platforms on Facebook as part of the government’s counter-extremism Prevent strategy.

But the company’s foreign influence tactics can now be exposed thanks to whistleblowers, leaked documents, Freedom of Information disclosures and analysis of dozens of LinkedIn profiles.