Twitter rebukes Tories over fake fact-checking site
THE TORIES have come under fire after rebranding one of their official Twitter accounts as a factchecking service during Tuesday night’s televised election debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.
Twitter issued a sharp rebuke that “any further attempts to mislead people” would result in “decisive corrective action” after the party’s verified press office account was temporarily renamed “factcheckUK”.
The Electoral Commission – the official elections watchdog – also issued a warning saying voters were entitled to expect “transparency and integrity” from campaigners.
Senior party figures brushed off the controversy, saying it was part of their “instant rebuttal” mechanism to challenge “nonsense” claims made by Mr Corbyn during the debate that they were preparing to sell off the NHS.
However opposition parties accused the Tories of adopting the tactics of Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin to deliberately mislead the public.
The row coincided with an appeal from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to campaigners in the election to “honour the gift of truth”.
In a statement, Twitter said:
“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.”
An Electoral Commission spokesman said: “While we do not have a role in regulating election campaign content, we repeat our call to all campaigners to undertake their vital role responsibly and to support campaigning transparency.”
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab insisted it had been clear throughout that it was a Conservative Party account.
Meanwhile, more than 2m low-paid workers are set to be lifted out of National Insurance under plans to be unveiled in the Tories’ General Election manifesto. Mr Johnson said the manifesto would include a commitment to raise the threshold at which workers start paying National Insurance contributions (NICs) from £8,628 a year to £9,500 – eventually rising to £12,500.
The Prime Minister had initially appeared to blurt out the plan ahead of the manifesto launch – expected at the weekend – during a campaign visit to an engineering company in Teesside. He later confirmed it to reporters following him on the campaign trail, saying it would put “around £500” in people’s pockets.