Foreign countries wanting to use fake news to disrupt the Australian election will not be campaigning for a particular side but rather creating “chaos for chaos’ sake” in an “unprecedented” attempt to undermine democracy, the Attorney-General and intelligence insiders said last night.

It comes as The West Australian can today reveal the Australian Electoral Commissioner has had to intervene and request content be removed from social media just eight days into the Federal election campaign.

The dramatic action has drawn applause from the new US Ambassador to Australia who said Australian effortsshould be used as a test case for the rest of the world.

Insiders said foreign efforts to infiltrate and disrupt the Australian election were actually about simply undermining voters’ confidence in democracy — in particular among young people.

Some observed that was part of fuelling a disturbing rise in socialist beliefs among university students as shown in a report by the Centre for Independent Studies last year that found 58 per cent of Australian millennials viewed socialism favourably.

It came a day after The West Australian revealed 66 per cent of 18 and 19-year-olds have a low level of trust in politicians.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said yesterday his team of cybersecurity experts and spooks were working around the clock giving daily briefings from the specialised Electoral Integrity Assurance task force.

The Canberra-based team are scouring social media 24/7 and have made several requests to remove content from Facebook and other social media since the election writs were issued eight days ago.

Officers from ASIO, the Australian Signals Directorate, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Department of Finance and Prime Minister and Cabinet are involved.

Mr Rogers confirmed the Government was worried about a range of people, including state actors who were wanting to create “chaos for chaos’ sake”.

“We are concerned about individual posts causing misinformation,” Mr Rogers said.

The 2016 US presidential campaign was mired by allegations of foreign interference by Russia and fake news.

The actions by Russian state actors, posing as grassroots American political organisations, were designed to covertly undermine faith in America’s democratic institutions and disadvantage candidates considered unfavourable.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller was tasked with investigating if Donald Trump or his allies worked with the Russian Government to illegally influence the election and undermine democracy to see him installed as president.

Attorney-General William Barr said last month that Mr Mueller did not find that anyone associated with the Trump campaign worked with Russia to illegally influence the election.

Mr Rogers said that since the Australian election campaign kicked off eight days ago, there had been 10 informal warnings and two formal requests issued for the removal of content in relation to the dissemination of incorrect information.

Security sources said they were concerned about China and rogue actors wanting to create disruption by way of disseminating fake information.

US Ambassador A. B. Culvahouse congratulated Australia’s efforts.

“As democracies, we must protect the transparency and integrity of the democratic process,” he said.

“The media plays a crucial role in the health of democracy and investigative journalism that exposes threats to democracy is particularly important.”

Attorney-General Christian Porter said there was a “disturbing trend” where foreign actors were seeking to interfere and undermine electoral processes across the world.

“ASIO has described the current espionage and foreign interference threat to Australia as unprecedented,” he said. “The integrity of Australia’s electoral processes is vital to our democracy.”

Deakin University Centre for Cyber Security deputy director Matt Warren said China was interested in interfering in Australian politics but would be playing a more long-term game.