Following the first televised leaders’ debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson, the biggest news story of the night happened off the stage.
The Conservatives were accused of promoting fake news when they rebranded their official Twitter account as a “fact checking” service.
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The account live-tweeted the debate and took aim at several of Corbyn’s statements. But people were left uncomfortable by the clear attempt to appear like an impartial fact-checking service.
People on Twitter were furious about it.
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis @JamesCleverly It was an utterly disgraceful stunt. Perfectly aligns the Tory brand with li… https://t.co/MNoLhRchfg— Chris Shaw (@Chris Shaw) 1574204495
This is disgraceful, duplicitous and wrong. And as is becoming normal in politics, there will be no consequences, n… https://t.co/QR5bRnMDDA— Rachel Parris (@Rachel Parris) 1574248287
The state of our politics. The governing party masquerading as a fact check service. Shitting all over fact and obj… https://t.co/AvnUKU90Qj— Reza Afshar (@Reza Afshar) 1574203827
This should..........not be legal https://t.co/DBbsj2wMoD— Sarah Manavis (@Sarah Manavis) 1574194604
The move prompted rebuttals from the Electoral Commission and Twitter, who said they’d consider banning the account if it misleads people again.
Appearing on Newsnight after the debate, Conservative Party Chairman attempted to defend the move.
.@maitlis: “This is the Conservative press office pretending to be a fact-check service… you were misleading the pu… https://t.co/Urk0gxPzf0— BBC Newsnight (@BBC Newsnight) 1574203893
Presenter Emily Maitlis asked Cleverly:
Dressed up party lines as a fact-check service, that is dystopian?
Cleverly responded:
We were calling out the Labour Party’s wilful misinformation regarding the NHS. And every time they do that, we will call it out. The reason they’re doing it is because they would rather have this row, than the row about their Brexit position.
Maitlis responded:
This is the conservative press office pretending to be a fact-checking office.
You were misleading the public, you were trying to coat your propaganda as hardened fact.
On Twitter, people weren’t convinced by Cleverly’s suggestion that the Tories were misleading the public as a way of showing… How Labour are allegedly misleading the public.
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis @JamesCleverly Cleverly was shocking tonight. He complained about Labour’s use of the word l… https://t.co/Mg9fOWMLHn— Simon Marshall (@Simon Marshall) 1574204691
That was a masterclass from @maitlis. She wouldn’t allow Cleverly to divert and distract from the subject. She just kept at him. Superb.— Damon (@Damon) 1574206090
Obviously we all talk about Johnson's dishonesty, because he is seemingly incapable of telling the truth. But wheth… https://t.co/QOVHg6fl47— Hannah Jane Parkinson (@Hannah Jane Parkinson) 1574247569
Absolutely pitiful and beyond desperate performance by Cleverly on @BBCNewsnight 👑Men struggling and squirming wh… https://t.co/WHhQZojrAd— Rosie Duffield MP 🦕💜🦖 (@Rosie Duffield MP 🦕💜🦖) 1574206980
If James Cleverly and the Conservative party had any integrity he'd apologise and resign - so safe to say we can ex… https://t.co/SaKuaMfjMq— Otto English (@Otto English) 1574235459
More: Tories called out for misleading public after sneaky ‘factcheckuk’ rebrand during election debate