TWITTER SLAMS UK TORIES FOR FAKE BRANDING AS ‘FACT-CHECK’

LONDON: Britain’s governing Conservatives on Wednesday robustly defended their decision to temporarily rename their Twitter account “factcheckuk” during a TV election debate, despite criticism from the social media network itself.

Foreign minister Dominic Raab said the move to rebrand the @CCHQPRESS account during Tuesday’s prime-time event was part of the “cut and thrust” of social media.

The move sparked condemnation from one fact check agency and political rivals, while Twitter warned any repetition in the future would lead to “decisive corrective action”.

Social media is one of the key battlegrounds ahead of the December 12 general election, which is dominated by Britain’s prolonged departure from the European Union.

During Tuesday’s debate, the first between Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the rebranded Tory Twitter account began firing off realtime rebuttals to Corbyn’s claims.

In a BBC interview, Raab defended the strategy, saying it was a way of providing “really good, i nstant r ebuttal” to Labour’s “nonsense”.

He noted that the words CCHQ were underneath t he factcheckuk brand, insisting: “No-one who looked at it for more than a split second would have been fooled.”

Questions have been raised about misleading claims in this election, however, particularly given Johnson’s own personal elastic relationship with the truth. Asked about whether voters would be concerned, Raab said he had been out campaigning and “no-one gives a toss about the social media cut and thrust”. AFP