On Tuesday evening, during the General Election TV debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, the Conservative Press Team at Conservative Central HQ (CCHQ) changed the name and branding of their Twitter account to ‘FactcheckUK’.
Condemned as “disingenuous”
They have been critisied by many for giving the impression they were an independent fact checking service, with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis calling it “dystopian”.
Quite a few Conservative MPs when on air defending it.
.@BorisJohnson is the clear winner in tonight’s #LeadersDebate pic.twitter.com/KTjSW0fn79— CCHQ Press (@CCHQPress) November 19, 2019
OnTheWight got in touch with the Isle of Wight’s Conservative candidate to understand what his view was about the incident.
Seely: “Should play things with a straight bat”
Bob Seely told OnTheWight,
“Personally, I think we should play things with a straight bat.
“My chairman made a public statement last week calling for a positive campaign on the Island. I welcome that.
“We need to encourage a fair and open campaign, as opposed to some of the personalised and abusive nonsense and false claims that appears, often anonymously, on Social Media.”
No action from Twitter
Changing the name and branding of a verified Twitter account is against the social media platform’s rules.
Although no action was taken against the Tory press office, Twitter said it would take “decisive corrective action” if something similar was tried again.
