Epistemic Security 2029: Fortifying the UK’s information supply chain to tackle the democratic emergency

Democracies worldwide are under extreme pressure. Unprecedented levels of distrust in our institutions are fuelling democratic backsliding, the rise of extreme populists across the world and the upending of the norms of liberal democracy. This is exacerbated by the rising power of social media giants, the collapse of trusted local news sources and increased foreign influence, all of which pose a threat to the nation’s information supply chains.

This paper argues that the UK has a unique opportunity to resist the global trend toward democratic backslide. In order to do so, however, we must urgently attend to the UK’s epistemic security – to securing healthy and robust information supply chains within the UK and building resilience to adverse influences thereupon. We identify the various points of vulnerability in today’s information supply chains, and set out actionable recommendations that the government could take now to safeguard our epistemic security.

This provocation paper is the first in a longer collaborative programme of work on Epistemic Security that will be anchored at Demos. At the heart of this will be the Epistemic Defence Network, a cross-civil society group convening to drive this agenda forward and deepen and expand on the recommendations set out above, to engage with the government on taking them forward and to develop some pilot research and practice programmes.

If you are interested in being involved please email the programme leads [email protected] and [email protected].