Britain's Conservative Party was accused Wednesday of trying to deceive voters by changing the name of its press office Twitter account to factcheckUKduring a televised election debate,raising concerns that political parties' online trickery is undermining democracy.
Rebranding its account to resemble a neutral fact-checker, complete with a big check mark, the party posted tweets supporting Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his debate with opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. It later reverted to the name CCHQ Press and restored the party logo to its profile.
Organizations that combat political misinformation cried foul.
It was misleading and it was inappropriate, Will Moy, chief executive of the London-based fact-checking website Full Fact, told The Associated Press. It's not what we can see a serious political party doing.''
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defended the party's actions, saying the Twitter account was clearly linked to the Conservatives and asserting that voters would not be perturbed by the social media cut and thrust. We make no apology for having an instant rebuttal to all the nonsense and lies put out, Raab told the BBC.
Twitter said in a statement that it had global rules in place that prohibit behavior that can mislead people. The company pledged to take decisive corrective action if there were any more attempts to mislead people by editing verified profile information, but did not censure the Tories for their account switch.
The manipulation of the account during a high-profile event put the rise of digital campaigning squarely in the public eye. All political parties are devoting much of their campaign spending to the digital realm as they battle to win the UK's Dec. 12 election, bypassing strict laws that govern communication on radio and television.
Despite parliamentary reports urging new regulations to combat misinformation or regulate the way digital ads target voters, British officials have made no significant changes to laws governing online ads, social media and election disinformation.
In a reflection of the confusion, the Electoral Commission, which regulates campaign finances, issued a statement warning that voters are entitled to transparency and integrity from campaigners in the lead-up to an election.'' Critically, however, it pointed out that it doesn't have a role in regulating election campaign content.'' With the absence of law, campaigns have been pushing the boundaries to get attention.
The Conservative Party was embroiled in controversy earlier this month when it posted a video on social media containing a misleading edit of a television interview with senior Labour figure Keir Starmer. The video had been altered to show Starmer failing to answer a question about Brexit when, in fact, he responded quickly. The Conservative Party chairman described the doctored video as lighthearted satire.
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