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. 

UK GOVERNMENT SECRETLY PAID FOREIGN YOUTUBE STARS FOR ‘PROPAGANDA’
Revealed: Media agency Zinc Network has contract to recruit social media influencers across Europe.

BY MARTIN WILLIAMS

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.

Speaking to Declassified, one former employee described Zinc’s work as “state propaganda” and accused it of interference in foreign elections.

Another said the relationship with some online influencers was “extremely exploitative”.

In recent years the company has recruited hundreds of internet celebrities for various clients, particularly in central and eastern Europe, a key battleground in the information war with Russia. 

Zinc staff tried to find the “most relatable influencers” and ensured that every video “feels authentic”.

Crucially, the influencers are instructed to sign non-disclosure agreements prior to being told about Foreign Office involvement. 

As a result, anyone watching their videos would have no idea they had been funded and signed-off by UK government officials.

The work has included a campaign to mobilise young voters in the 2023 Slovakian elections. That election was ultimately won by Robert Fico’s left-wing nationalist Smer party, which is seen as being “pro-Russian” and which has been “dependent on older voters” – compared to the younger, pro-Europe Progressive Slovakia party.

One former employee said that, by targeting younger voters, Zinc Network’s campaign amounted to “interference in a sovereign country’s internal affairs”.

The source said that the company’s executives “see the world through their British eyes”, adding: “It looked like dictating the foreign will.”

On at least one occasion, multiple staff members raised ethical concerns about a particular influencer campaign, but a source said that senior managers at Zinc “didn’t quite understand why there was an issue”.

The source added that young influencers are often grateful for the funding and rarely question who the funder is. “They just take money and sell their followership to a paying client,” they said.

Zinc Network claims to operate with the “highest standards” of transparency, including a “transparent approach to attribution”. An ethics review in 2021 also claimed that Zinc’s campaigns are identified as “Zinc products”. 

Rules set out by the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) say: “If an influencer is paid in any form… and the brand has shared control over the content, the post must be obviously identifiable as an ad.” 

The rules go on to say that “ads mustn’t materially mislead by omitting the identity of the marketer.”

In the past, YouTube has also pledged to alert viewers to state-sponsored content. But no such disclosure was made on Zinc Network videos. 

In 2022, YouTube’s chief product officer Neal Mohan told the Guardian the platform was taking “unprecedented action” against channels that include “narratives that are coming from Russian government, or Russian actors on behalf of the Russian government”.

Details of Zinc Network’s projects for the government have been a highly guarded secret. In 2022, the company signed a £9,450,000 contract with the Foreign Office, which is due to end in December this year.

Usually, large contracts are published in full on the government’s website, but in this instance the contract was kept under wraps. 

For almost two years, the Foreign Office tried to prevent it from being released under the Freedom of Information Act, leading to three separate reprimands from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who ruled in favour of transparency each time. 

A heavily redacted version of the contract was eventually disclosed to Declassified, although the ICO is now assessing a fresh complaint over the Foreign Office’s refusal to release the document’s full annexes.

The documents show that Zinc was contracted to help counter disinformation in 22 countries across Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, and in the Baltics. This is done partly by “providing a greater variety” of reliable information, as well as by “increasing societal and general public resilience to disinformation”.

It says: “This project fits within wider 30yr UK Government objectives, to provide balanced, independent voices to more people in the regions.”

Crucially, the documents claim that the programme should “not interfere with the editorial independence of the civil society organisations [it] supports”. 

But job adverts at Zinc have described “work with the influencers to shape their ideas and edits”.

Sources claim that influencers’ videos for the Foreign Office are devised with direct input and oversight from Zinc Network staff – and are ultimately sent to government officials for final approval before being posted online.

In a response to a parliamentary question about Zinc last month, the government admitted it “provides feedback on videos for social media” to “ensure alignment with overarching project objectives, and conflict and gender sensitivity criteria”. 

However, the statement added: “Due to the risks posed to our partners and beneficiaries of these projects we do not publish detailed information about them.”

Zinc has also conducted similar projects for other major clients. They include working with USAID in the South Caucasus to “build a new brand identity” that expresses “physical and emotional solidarity” with people, in a bid to make them “more resilient to Russian hostile influence”.

Based in a Brutalist 1960s office block near London’s Waterloo station, Zinc Network has managed to stay largely out of the public eye for years.

Its founder, Robert Elliott, began his career as a TV researcher for shows like Pop Idol, Big Brother and Deal Or No Deal. 

He set up the company in 2008, under the name Camden Creative Ltd. But it wasn’t until his friend Scott Brown joined forces with him in 2012 that its fortunes changed.

Brown had previously worked for the Conservative Party, as well as a stint at the now-disgraced PR agency, Bell Pottinger. 

With Brown on board at Camden Creative Ltd, the company was renamed Breakthrough Media and it began sweeping up lucrative contracts from the government and elsewhere – although details about the work were often kept secret. It rebranded again to Zinc Network in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.

In 2023, two of the company’s directors were banned from entering Russia, and much of its most sensitive work remains under wraps, although there is no suggestion it has acted unlawfully.

Some limited details about Zinc’s work in the Baltics are published on the company’s website, which boasts about identifying “the region’s most promising Russian-language social influencers across YouTube, Facebook, VK and Instagram”. 

In a statement to Declassified, the company said: “Zinc Network is proud of our work helping civil society push back against hostile Russian influence, especially given the destruction being wrought on Ukraine. We operate within all applicable legislation and our own ethical frameworks around transparency and duty of care, as reviewed by an independent media ethicist.

The statement went on to stress the “urgent need to counter unprecedented informational warfare targeting democratic societies”. 

Responding to Declassified’s investigation, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The UK will always champion truth and democratic values. Working with partner governments, we use a range of efforts to resist and rebut disinformation spread by those that wish to target the British people and our allies.

 “As part of this important work, we collaborate with commercial organisations, independent media outlets and civil society to combat manipulation and interference in democratic participation.”

Declassified is still actively investigating this story. If you have information to share with us, please contact: martin [at] declassifieduk.org

https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-government-secretly-paid-foreign-youtube-stars-for-propaganda/

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