Thread by @HeatherMoAndCo

Erin O’Toole’s mercenary PR team, Topham Guerin, that handled Boris Johnson’s campaign & Brexit, have a history of malign influence tactics that seem to follow them around. They learned at the knee of Lynton Crosby, aka Australia’s Karl Rove. #Elxn44 #NeverVoteCPC

#Facebook is utilized heavily in Topham Guerin strategies. Skirting election laws by using front groups setting up Facebook pages that pretend to be grassroots, thus avoid inclusion as 3rd party advertising. Working for Crosby, TG oversaw an entire disinformation network. #Elxn44

When working for Scott Morrison, Australia’s current conservative PM (the Liberal Party in Australia is the equivalent of the #CPC), similar tactics that we’re witnessing in 🇨🇦, could be seen. The left was targeted in addition to the right. An oft used tactic by the Right #Elxn44

#Facebook groups sprung up (lasting, coincidentally, only the duration of TG’s contract), purporting to be left & anti-racist, organizing protests against Australian Labor leader Bill Shorten. Similar tactics would later be used on Jeremy Corbyn in 🇬🇧. #Elxn44 #NeverVoteCPC

For the op against @jeremycorbyn, a Jewish newspaper, that’d been bought out by a consortium, Jewish Chronicle, was ground 0 for spreading libellous claims about Corbyn & other Labour candidates accused of antisemitism. JC paid out heavily in libel damages - after 🇬🇧’s election.

The operations against Corbyn by no means were strictly Topham Guerin products. Far from it. Like attacks on Trudeau, they’ve been years in the making. But TG uses other ops, amplifies & inflames them. It’s like lightning a series of matches, watching for which ones catch fire.