Tories accused of misleading public with ‘factcheck’ Twitter stunt – only 5 responses you need
There’s pretty much only one thing people are talking about after last night’s so-called leadership debate and it’s got nothing to do with anything either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn said.
It was the Tory party’s decision to rebrand their official Twitter account from CCHQPress to factcheckUK.
Critics said the Conservatives were misleading the public and Twitter agreed. They said this.
“Twitter is committed to facilitating healthy debate throughout the UK general election. We have global rules in place that prohibit behaviour that can mislead people, including those with verified accounts. Any further attempts to mislead people by editing verified profile information – in a manner seen during the UK election debate – will result in decisive corrective action.”
But party chairman James Cleverly defended it, obviously. Here he is on BBC2’s Newsnight last night.
.@maitlis: “This is the Conservative press office pretending to be a fact-check service… you were misleading the public.”@JamesCleverly: “We were calling out the inaccuracies that were coming out during the debate"https://t.co/tyeoNZZw7X#Newsnight | #GE2019 | #ITVDebate pic.twitter.com/qOIxTWQa8Z
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 19, 2019
And these are the only 5 responses you need.
1.
Even as trust is discussed in the #ITVDebate, Tory HQ renames its twitter feed to hide its lies. Just astonishing. pic.twitter.com/1nru88Y1TG
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) November 19, 2019
2.
This perfect five act play took place over 2 seconds:
1. Etchingham: Does truth matter?
2. Johnson: I think it does.
3. Audience in the studio: snigger
4. Anyone watching: snort
5. Conservative HQ: renames its twitter feed #factcheckuk in an attempt to deceive.#ITVDebate— Elizabeth Also One of the British People, European (@ElizabethBangs) November 19, 2019
3.
I’ve got a nice ass #factcheckuk#itvdebate
— Joe Lycett (@joelycett) November 19, 2019
4.
We apologise for any misunderstanding caused by the changes to our account last night. It was an honest attempt to mislead people into believing our lies and propaganda.#FactCheckuk
— CCHQ Press (@BorisJohnson_MP) November 20, 2019
5.
I pretended to be Fact Check UK for a few hours last night for a laugh and was locked out of my account and reported for impersonation. Guessing @CCHQPress had similar issues… Nah? Nope. Nothing has consequences anymore? Cool. pic.twitter.com/CMMDmVpuNF
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) November 20, 2019
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