Showbiz
Matthew Champion
Jun 29, 2015
Glastonbury has come and gone, but whether you were one of the 135,000 people at Worthy Farm or were just watching on TV, you might have seen this graphic doing the rounds on social media.
It claims that of 1,000 people polled at Glastonbury on Friday, 74 per cent voted Conservative in the general election, followed by 13 per cent Ukip and four per cent Labour. And it's obviously a fake.
Despite the ridiculous figures, a Guardian logo and a similar but not identical font to the paper was enough to make star columnist Polly Toynbee tweet it out.
Better yet, the poll even made it in passing mention in the Sunday Telegraph. An article by music critic Neil McCormick cited the poll as evidence that "what may look like an anarchic explosion of hedonistic express is actually a celebration of a very British kind of civilised liberalism".
The graphic was actually mocked up by Twitter user Patrick, a 25-year-old from Donegal in Ireland who works in social media.
Patrick told i100.co.uk he could understand the chart getting more traction if the figures were realistic, but he "intentionally made them ridiculous".
I did it as a bit of an experiment to illustrate the apparent willingness of people to believe whatever they see on social media and how false information can be spread so easily, which is a worrying trend.
He added:
However, I really just did it for a laugh to be honest.
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