Tories called out for misleading public after sneaky ‘factcheckuk’ rebrand during election debate

The Conservative press office caused outrage on Tuesday night after the party rebranded their Twitter account to appear like an independent fact-checking organisation during the ITV live debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

The party’s CCHQ twitter account changed its name to ‘factcheckUK’ as ITV aired their televised debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. The account also swapped out their usual profile picture for one showing a tick and changed their header image for one emblazoned with the words 'FactCheckUK’.

During the hour-long debate the account shared various tweets apparently focused on Corbyn’s lies and championing the ‘honest’ policies of Boris Johnson.

The move saw the Conservatives heavily criticised by political journalists, genuine fact-checking services and the public throughout the evening. With many accusing the party of deliberately misleading online users and turning their account into a propaganda machine.

One senior Conservative reportedly told Buzzfeed News that the account was changed because “Corbyn needs fact checking.”

Many questioned whether the Tories had violated Twitter rules that state that accounts acting in a ‘confusing’ or ‘deceptive’ manner could be permanently suspended from the social media site.

Unsurprisingly, Twitter also think it's fairly blatant misuse of power and was misleading to the public.

If seen in violation the party could see their blue ‘verified’ tick removed of their account closed down entirely, which wouldn’t be an ideal situation in the lead up to an election.

Of course it didn't take long for people to begin trolling the account with many changing their profiles to mimic the so-called factcheckers.

Other users took it upon themselves to share their own 'facts', and Boris Johnson didn't come off well...

Top prizes however go to none other than Ralph Little who took it upon himself to become... The Conservative Party.

More than anything though people were pretty disgusted at the depths that the Tory party were willing to plunge and the alarming precedent that they appear to be setting.

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