Twitter warns UK political party over ‘factcheck’ rebrand that ‘misled the public’

Twitter says a UK political party’s rebrand of their press account as a fact-checking service “misled the public.” 

The UK’s Conservative party has been accused of misleading people by rebranding their official Twitter profile as a fact-checker during a televised leadership debate.

During a head-to-head between Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnston and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn broadcast by ITV on Tuesday night, the Twitter account of the Conservative press office was rebranded as “factcheckUK” with a new logo that showed no indication of its political associations.

Then, during the course of the debate, the account began posting supposedly “fact-checked” tweets, which only targeted Labour. The only thing that didn’t change was the handle @CCHQPress.

Although the account’s rebranding has been removed, at the time of writing there are still a few tweets with the “factcheckUK” branding remaining on the press office’s account, including a video declaring Johnson as the “winner” of the debate.

Fact-checking services have becoming increasingly vital for verification in the age of misinformation during elections, with the UK public in particular leaning on platforms from the BBC and independent website Full Fact.

Full Fact slammed the Conservative press office on Twitter and in a statement to the Guardian, saying the renaming of a verified account like this was “inappropriate and misleading,” and urged people not to mistake it for a fact-checking service.

In a statement sent to Mashable, Twitter said the Conservative party had indeed misled the public. The social media giant said “corrective action” would be taken in the event that something like this happened again.

“Twitter is committed to facilitating healthy debate throughout the UK general election,” said a spokesperson.

“We have global rules in place that prohibit behaviour that can mislead people, including those with verified accounts. Any further attempts to mislead people by editing verified profile information – in a manner seen during the UK election debate – will result in decisive corrective action.”

Whether or not the account’s few remaining “factcheck” branded tweets will be removed remains to be seen. Mashable has reached out to Twitter for further comment.

After the Conservative party’s problematic rebrand, others on Twitter realised how easy it was to do the same. Author Aaron Gillies gave it a whirl for a few hours before reportedly getting locked out his account, later tweeting, “Nothing has consequences anymore? Cool.”

Journalists Moya Lothian-McLean and Hussein Kesvani tested it out too, as seen in the feed below.

Even Veep creator Armando Iannucci‏ got in on the action, although he’s now reverted back to his own profile.

It’s worth noting that although people like Gillies reported getting locked out of their accounts after changing their names, it’s unclear if the @CCHQPress account received anything other than a slap on the wrist.