The Cambridge Analytica exposé shows the UK needs better data protection | Liam Byrne

From the savagery in Salisbury to 'dark social ads', Russia's hybrid warfare is here and needs a swift response. US law may have the answer

The Observer's remarkable exposi(C) of Cambridge Analytica must now bring down the curtain on the permissive environment for online electoral sabotage. It's time for new laws, starting with a new UK version of the Honest Ads Act proposed in Congress, so voters finally learn who is targeting them with what "news" - and who's writing the cheques. And that's the amendment I'll propose to the data protection bill this week.

It's not just the revelations about Cambridge Analytica that require us to act. The savagery in Salisbury brings with it a new truth. "Hybrid war", fought for five years without mercy in the Ukraine, Crimea and the Baltics, has now arrived on our shores.