Few quick thoughts on the Tory press office ‘fact check’ thing:
It is utterly deplorable and not acceptable - a planned, deliberate attempt to mislead the public.
Quick THREAD ⬇️
theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
It is utterly deplorable and not acceptable - a planned, deliberate attempt to mislead the public.
Quick THREAD ⬇️
theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
Tory social media team want to be seen as controversial and disruptive, tearing up the rules of the game etc - it’s the Trumpian playbook. They knew it would create outrage and generate lots of process stories today
And I think they were planning on basis Johnson would perform badly in the debate (he did), and they’d much rather the commentariat were talking about a twitter process story today than real issues covered in the debate where Johnson is weak
This sort of thing really doesn’t cut through with the vast majority of voters, least of all undecideds in key constituencies. It’s a classic bubble story and the Tories know that.
I think it was designed to give them 24hrs breathing space in the event that Johnson crashed in the debate.
All that said, it is outrageous and electoral guidelines and social media codes of conduct need to be adapted quick for this sort of thing
Fake news and deep fake are going to become a much more negative force in and around digital politics and discourse. @ElectoralCommUK & @Twitter @TwitterGov can’t stay silent on this.
Think @Twitter have made a statement ~ @TwitterGov @Policy absolutely right to warn that future conduct like this will result in ‘corrective action’’
