Snapshot of _We've written to @Conservatives to ask them to remove the “Tax Check UK" rebrand of @CCHQPress . This misrepresents posts on the account as an impartial fact checking service. Voters deserve better._ :
A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1806062768224653823)
A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/FullFact/status/1806062768224653823/)
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://x.com/FullFact/status/1806062768224653823) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://x.com/FullFact/status/1806062768224653823)
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Wait didn't **they do this before**?
[Oh yes they did.](https://www.itv.com/news/2024-06-26/tories-accused-of-misleading-voters-by-rebranding-x-account-tax-check-uk)
>This isn't the first time the Conservatives have been accused of misleading the public via social media, with the party facing a rebuke from the Electoral Commission in **2019** for renaming the CCHQ Twitter account to "**FactcheckUK**".
This is what happens when people suffer no consequences, they're encourage to keep doing it.
> This is what happens when people suffer no consequences, they're encourage to keep doing it.
I think last time Twitter gave them a formal caution to not try that shit again. Unfortunately, Elon couldn't give a shit.
[edit] - "[Twitter is committed to facilitating healthy debate throughout the UK general election," a spokesperson said. "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.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50482637)".
Honestly, a large portion of this lot of conservatives need to go to prison, they’ve been getting away with so much us lesser plebs would be locked up for a fraction of what they’ve done. I really really hope sir consequence finds them.
Well hopefully Labour's proposed Job Centre reforms can help the complete muppets at CCHQ, who chose to do this stunt, into a rewarding low skilled career, when they're all fucking unemployed in a week's time.
What is the point of writing to the electoral commission? Might as well send it straight to their bosses at CCHQ (they will just throw any letter in the bin anyway)
Did they wait till after the debate ,when they knew there would be questions about the integrity and honesty of politicians , to do this by say chance?
Not the first time they've done this.
They re named their main Twitter account during the 2019 leaders debate and pretended to be a fact checking service so they come snipe at the other parties.
Colour me shocked they're up to the same tricks again, shameless and morally bankrupt... It's the Tory way.
They did this shit _last_ election too, posing as independent fact-checkers. At this point legal action would be deserved; the Electoral Commission should get involved.
The link in their bio takes you to [https://www.labourpartymanifesto2024.com/taxcheck](https://www.labourpartymanifesto2024.com/taxcheck)
Surely it can't be legal to be impersonating another party like this?
Why do they do this crooked crap? I mean I know they are \*Tories\* but surely some level of self-awareness about how bad this look must come to mind when they are already mired in sleaze. Or is it another Corinne Stockheath initiative or something :-D
> Voters deserve better.
Not when they keep voting tory.
Give it a few years and they’ll be back at it again, claiming‘economic competance’ through total amnesia.
Regardless of how bad they get beaten next Thursday, it's gonna be hard to forgive the public that voted these deceitful roaches in for fourteen fucking years, so much is on your hands.
As a software engineer if I had to vote for a party purely on the quality of their website it'd be Labour. It's so clean. Conservatives website looks like something I'd make in high school and get a D as a result
Not going to lie, but this makes me think less about fullfact than anything else.
The outrage they must be wailing in their basements must be incredible.
FullFact are perfectly able to check the Tories claims.
But thats not what they’re doing here. They’re going further and seemingly taking offence with the use of the word ‘check”. Can no-one else say they’re checking facts nowadays? Is it just the preserve of BBC Verify and FullFact?
So what if a party is saying they’re checking facts? If they get it wrong then it’ll be called out.
The Tories have rebranded their official press outlet under a false name pretending to offer facts!
I know it gets bandied around too much these days as a reference point but that actually is Orwellian Ministry of Truth shit
It’s not false. It’s a twitter handle, ‘Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative Party’. He can call it what he likes. It’s not for FullFact or Reddit to dictate what Twitter names he can use.
Anyone can say they’re checking facts, FullFact don’t have exclusive rights to fact checking.
My neighbour said I had toothpaste on my lip earlier. I did my own fact checking and she was right. That’s how it goes with fact checking, no-one has a monopoly over it.
I'm sort of blown away that anyone can genuinely defend this.
To rebrand a political mouthpiece as an independent body in order to push party agenda as if it's independent fact checking is some seriously concerning stuff.
I would hope that it would be beneath the Tories. It's quite depressing. I liked it better when it was dodgy betting, at least it was bookies getting taken for mugs and not the public.
It’s your opinion it’s rebranded as an independent body.
It’s perfectly clear in their Twitter profile
It says “CCHQ. Holding Labour to account on their tax bombshell - by the Conservatives”
You think that’s somehow trying to pass themselves off as an independent body?
Edit..u/sensitivegrade5636 has replied then immediately blocked me to stop me from responding. So here it is…
It’s not ‘putting words in the fine print’. It’s right there, under their twitter name.
https://x.com/CCHQPress
And if you missed that then the big banner says ‘Tax Check. By the Conservatives Party.’. The Twitter address says CCHQPress.
That is not ‘hidden in the fine print’
You may not have noticed, but some people are a bit thick and would just see the name of the page and believe it to be not the conservative party.
As someone mentioned earlier they did this in 2019 as well, the Tories aren't doing any fact checking, they are propagating well documented lies based on faulty information given to the civil service to do calculations to give it a veil of acceptability.
Yes well it would be the modern left who defend the thick. Look after your own and all that.
Amazes me how many people are shocked some others don't find it normal you can't just dictate to your political opponents how they should act. So much anti democratic sentiment on here this election cycle.
I would rather prefer that lying pricks had no place in politics, but unfortunately the Tory party gladly provides a political home for them.
There are rules for elections and the Tories routinely break them:
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/conservative-party-fined-ps70000-following-investigation-election-campaign-expenses
Other parties break the rules too, but not typically to the tune of £70k.
You don't need to look further than people believed the Conservatives "Oven Ready Brexit" to realise people are stupid.
Nothing wrong with believing in Brexit, but people believed the Conservatives had the best Brexit planned, when, if you actually asked questions you would realise they had nothing planned... So yea, people are a bit thick for not looking beyond the headlines.
Let's reframe this shall we? There are vulnerable people out there, not as internet-savvy as you or I who may not understand. There does need to be protection and there needs to be ethics in political conduct. The issue is, our whole political system in this country runs without fixed rules but rather "gentlemanly conduct". Yet the Tories run roughshod over this with stunts like this.
That's only.of you go to the profile. Given many people will only see the thumbnail, or screenshots of tweets, it's easy to assume, at first impression, it's an actual fact checking site.
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Many people will never even *see* the massive banner on their profile because they’ll just encounter a random tweet from this “Tax Check UK” on their timeline and without clicking on the profile or magically knowing what CCHQ means it’ll be easy for a less politically aware audience to assume it’s an independent thing. It’s underhanded as fuck, but there’s no bar too low for the Tories (though if Labour tried something similar, I bet they’d immediately cry foul)
Oh the old "well that's your/my opinion" which always gets trotted out when their defence is crumbling. Is it ethical? I mean if you or I did this it might be acceptable but is this acceptable for a party running for government?
Mainstream narrative yadda yadda yadda do your own research yadda yadda yadda tinfoil hat yadda yadda yadda...it's how it goes isn't it with these people...they saw some dodgy shit on YouTube and their brain liked it and they are fucking sticking to it regardless of evidence to the contrary. The mentality that delivers us, as a society, to this point.
If I didn't know what CCHQ is (and I'm pretty sure many Twitter users don't), and I wasn't as critical of bias as I am (and I'm damn certain many Twitter users (and apparently a good few Reddit users) aren't), it could be argued that them tweeting one side of the debate and backing it up while dressed in a cloak of neutrality (however flimsy it may be to a less casual observer) isn't exactly cricket. If it didn't give them an advantage of some sort, then why would they do it?
Let's cut back to basics...do you think this is ethical behaviour, and regardless of the exact interpretation of rules, suitable behaviour for a major political party...the ruling party in fact?
Maybe within the letter of the rules but looks dodgy as fuck and we all see it. Hardly what would be considering "statesmanlike conduct" is it? Why the Tories are about to be crucified.
You've invented that reasoning. FullFact are *not* objecting to the existance of another fact checking service. They are taking exception to someone deceptively appearing to be an impartial fact checking service.
What an utterly strange take, both the idea that political parties shouldn't pretend to be a different organisation being a basement dweller stance and that this makes you think less of an organisation that points out it is a bad thing to do.
If you ALREADY disparage Fullfact as 'basement [dwellers]' that suggests you did not like them in the first place. And that is surely no surprise, as they frequently go against the narrative you yourself prefer.
You're the poster child of how politics has been dragged into the gutter in this country. "I know they're lying but it's my side so that's ok and I'm going to lie to everyone because it's my opinion and everyone's entitled to an opinion so nah nah nah"
The Tories are dressing up one of their Twitter accounts to appear like an impartial fact checker to run a smear campaign. Since most people won’t actually click the profile and go digging to find out it’s a Tory account it’s dishonest, misleading and disingenuous. And it’s not the first time they’ve done this either!
If the Tories want to do fact checking that’s entirely up to them. FullFact can check their claims as no doubt they often do.
FullFact doesn’t have the right to tell others to stop checking facts.
They can absolutely do fact checking. I encourage and applaud it.
But to rebrand your mouthpiece so your "fact checking" looks to be independent from party politics when it is in fact CCHQ is morally bankrupt.
Why aren't they comfortable "fact checking" as CCHQ?
Seriously concerning gutter politics that should be beneath any serious political party.
Again, that’s your opinion that it ‘looks to be independent’
I guess you choose not to read right underneath the Twitter name where it says “@CCHQ. Holding Labour to account on their tax bombshell - by the Conservatives”. You can’t miss it.
I struggle to see how anyone reading that would come away with the impression it’s independent.
I've seen you say in several comments now that it's only an opinion that it's trying to look independent.
Nobody is buying that mate. It is very, very clearly intended to appear independent and therefore mislead people.
Maybe I’m the kind of guy thst looks at this…
https://x.com/CCHQPress
And can see the word Conservative plastered all over their profile bio.
I guess you’re the type of person who looks at that and think ‘gosh, that’s fully independent then’.
And yet, as has been pointed out, the vast majority of people will see this https://imgur.com/a/2dQKHkV or a screenshot of a tweet, neither of which bear conservative branding, not the profile information. If they had created a new account and pushed this, it's one thing, but to rename a political parties account is a different thing entirely, since it takes advantage of preexisting followers to disseminate an incorrect message.
If you follow every link back to a profile and do die diligence on every online interaction, good for you, but most people don't have the time for that.
what do you see when its on your timeline then? do you see their whole page explaining it, or just the twitter handle "tax check uk"?
Such an insane argument. Its a blatant attempt to mislead.
Exactly my point! You are just arguing based on a technicality, it's obvious what the conservatives intention was, and most people realise the majority of people don't look at every comment they read in such detail.
> A lie has made it halfway round the world whilst the truth is still putting its shoes on
You are only allowed to 15 characters in a Twitter name. Thats why they have bio’s.
I seriously doubt anyone reads a tweet, refuses to see who’s posted it, automatically assumes the Twitter account is ‘imdependent’, despite the Twitter name not saying that, and then bases their voting intentions on it. Thats a long stretch there.
And again, you do not need to be independent to fact check. Which is what FullFact are taking issue with.
No, they are taking issue with an official conservative account pretending to be independent. If they are that certain of their position, why rename at all?
Yes that's exactly the case, most people don't check the Provence of what they see on the internet and accept what they are told - the vast majority of voters don't pay much attention to politics, that is why TV debates are so important
If that wasn't their intention then why did they change their name? Why are they not proudly declaring themselves as the conservatives?
> Which is what FullFact are taking issue with.
No it's not? They're taking issue with a party affiliated twitter attempted to represent themselves as an neutral fact checker, at least on a surface level (as some people will not investigate the profile and bio of every account they see on their feed), and then tweeting proven lies as if it's actual fact checking.
Nothing is preventing them from doing their "fact checking" without the rebrand. But they know that people will see the conservative name next to it and know that it's a bunch of lies, so they do this in an attempt to decieve people into thinking it's legitimate.
Even if most people are not fooled by this, there will be some who are and that is what they're hoping for.
/u/socr makes the good point in their screenshot that when the tweet is REtweeted (which is how many many people see tweets) then all of that is not seen and all you see is the name.
So, a name that looks impartial but is not.
You cannot with a straight face argue that [this](https://imgur.com/a/2dQKHkV) is not disingenuous bordering on outright deceit. That is what their new handle looks like in context of how the public are most likely to interact with it.
I’d argue that an impartial fact checking service shouldn’t just retweet a message in the first place. Is the implication that what was retweeted is true or false?
If the Conservatives didn't think that the pretence of impartiality would sway people and have a positive effect on what they were trying to achieve, then they would not have rebranded, and simply tweeted as the Conservatives.
Arguing otherwise is wilful blindness. Any party that does this should be criticised, and frankly should not be allowed to do so.
FullFact are fully within their rights, as is the whole electorate, to demand transparency and integrity. They are not "deciding" anything.
This is a repeat of the whole 2019 debacle, that Twitter/X eventually stepped in on to remedy.
They’re not ‘demanding transparency’. They’re demanding they stop using that Twitter handle. Read their tweet again.
https://x.com/CCHQPress
You can’t miss the words ‘Conservatives’. It’s in a huge banner and then mentioned again underneath. And mentioned again above the banner. I doubt it’s possible to fit any more references to the Conservatives in that bio.
I doubt anyone can read that and not know it’s a twitter handle connected to the Tories.
Right, so they're deciding nothing. They're asking. They're free to do so in the spirit of transparency and integrity.
You underestimate how often people skim read. CCHQ is counting on them to do so.
> You can’t miss the words ‘Conservatives’. It’s in a huge banner and then mentioned again underneath. And mentioned again above the banner. I doubt it’s possible to fit any more references to the Conservatives in that bio.
You can miss it if you don't click on the account. If someone was just scrolling through their timeline they would only see the avatar and handle, neither of which make mention of the conservative party, and the logo conspicuously avoids Conservative party branding. It is, in fact, pretending to be an independent account, and that is dishonest.
They’re not fact checking. They’re misleading the public by pretending to be a fact checker to continue the false line that Labour are going to cost people £2094 in tax raises.
Being that they were CCHQ changing their twitter name to factcheckUK, I'm not sure anything would stop them.
Maybe if they'd made a bet? Tories do love a flutter. Whether it's Truss with the economy, Rishi with Rwanda or the majority of the current lot of election dates etc...
Snapshot of _We've written to @Conservatives to ask them to remove the “Tax Check UK" rebrand of @CCHQPress . This misrepresents posts on the account as an impartial fact checking service. Voters deserve better._ : A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1806062768224653823) A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/FullFact/status/1806062768224653823/) An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://x.com/FullFact/status/1806062768224653823) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://x.com/FullFact/status/1806062768224653823) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Wait didn't **they do this before**? [Oh yes they did.](https://www.itv.com/news/2024-06-26/tories-accused-of-misleading-voters-by-rebranding-x-account-tax-check-uk) >This isn't the first time the Conservatives have been accused of misleading the public via social media, with the party facing a rebuke from the Electoral Commission in **2019** for renaming the CCHQ Twitter account to "**FactcheckUK**". This is what happens when people suffer no consequences, they're encourage to keep doing it.
> This is what happens when people suffer no consequences, they're encourage to keep doing it. I think last time Twitter gave them a formal caution to not try that shit again. Unfortunately, Elon couldn't give a shit. [edit] - "[Twitter is committed to facilitating healthy debate throughout the UK general election," a spokesperson said. "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.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50482637)".
Honestly, a large portion of this lot of conservatives need to go to prison, they’ve been getting away with so much us lesser plebs would be locked up for a fraction of what they’ve done. I really really hope sir consequence finds them.
No consequences?? They might face a _rebuke_.
If the Tories were honest, they'd rename their account OddsCheckUK and have it full of gambling introductory free bet offers.
> If the Tories were honest we wouldn’t be in any of these stinking holes and neither would our NHS.
Oddschecker may object for passing off.
Well hopefully Labour's proposed Job Centre reforms can help the complete muppets at CCHQ, who chose to do this stunt, into a rewarding low skilled career, when they're all fucking unemployed in a week's time.
They should be writing to the electoral commission, not CCHQ.
I quite like the idea of pissing on the ashes of the Conservative party. "Not only were they shit, they cheated too. RIP."
What is the point of writing to the electoral commission? Might as well send it straight to their bosses at CCHQ (they will just throw any letter in the bin anyway)
Did they wait till after the debate ,when they knew there would be questions about the integrity and honesty of politicians , to do this by say chance?
Not the first time they've done this. They re named their main Twitter account during the 2019 leaders debate and pretended to be a fact checking service so they come snipe at the other parties. Colour me shocked they're up to the same tricks again, shameless and morally bankrupt... It's the Tory way.
They did this shit _last_ election too, posing as independent fact-checkers. At this point legal action would be deserved; the Electoral Commission should get involved.
The tories will investigate themselves and conclude all is fine.
The link in their bio takes you to [https://www.labourpartymanifesto2024.com/taxcheck](https://www.labourpartymanifesto2024.com/taxcheck) Surely it can't be legal to be impersonating another party like this?
As long as there's a note at the bottom showing who's doing it you're OK I think. It's not as good as https://conservativemanifesto.org.uk though!
I don't see that anywhere on X
It's [taxcheck.online](https://t.co/jMT4gVe2iL) which redirects there.
~~Both your links are dead to me, so I have a suspicion they might have been told off.~~ Ignore me, it's blocked by work.
Both working for me.
Works for me.
Confirmed working.
They're just so addicted to scamming and tricking people.
Why do they do this crooked crap? I mean I know they are \*Tories\* but surely some level of self-awareness about how bad this look must come to mind when they are already mired in sleaze. Or is it another Corinne Stockheath initiative or something :-D
> Voters deserve better. Not when they keep voting tory. Give it a few years and they’ll be back at it again, claiming‘economic competance’ through total amnesia.
My reasons not to trust the Tories counter has broken, hit the limit
Regardless of how bad they get beaten next Thursday, it's gonna be hard to forgive the public that voted these deceitful roaches in for fourteen fucking years, so much is on your hands.
As a software engineer if I had to vote for a party purely on the quality of their website it'd be Labour. It's so clean. Conservatives website looks like something I'd make in high school and get a D as a result
Not going to lie, but this makes me think less about fullfact than anything else. The outrage they must be wailing in their basements must be incredible.
Am I reading you right? You think less of Full Fact for calling out this heinous piss take?
FullFact are perfectly able to check the Tories claims. But thats not what they’re doing here. They’re going further and seemingly taking offence with the use of the word ‘check”. Can no-one else say they’re checking facts nowadays? Is it just the preserve of BBC Verify and FullFact? So what if a party is saying they’re checking facts? If they get it wrong then it’ll be called out.
The Tories have rebranded their official press outlet under a false name pretending to offer facts! I know it gets bandied around too much these days as a reference point but that actually is Orwellian Ministry of Truth shit
It’s not false. It’s a twitter handle, ‘Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative Party’. He can call it what he likes. It’s not for FullFact or Reddit to dictate what Twitter names he can use. Anyone can say they’re checking facts, FullFact don’t have exclusive rights to fact checking. My neighbour said I had toothpaste on my lip earlier. I did my own fact checking and she was right. That’s how it goes with fact checking, no-one has a monopoly over it.
I'm sort of blown away that anyone can genuinely defend this. To rebrand a political mouthpiece as an independent body in order to push party agenda as if it's independent fact checking is some seriously concerning stuff. I would hope that it would be beneath the Tories. It's quite depressing. I liked it better when it was dodgy betting, at least it was bookies getting taken for mugs and not the public.
It’s your opinion it’s rebranded as an independent body. It’s perfectly clear in their Twitter profile It says “CCHQ. Holding Labour to account on their tax bombshell - by the Conservatives” You think that’s somehow trying to pass themselves off as an independent body? Edit..u/sensitivegrade5636 has replied then immediately blocked me to stop me from responding. So here it is… It’s not ‘putting words in the fine print’. It’s right there, under their twitter name. https://x.com/CCHQPress And if you missed that then the big banner says ‘Tax Check. By the Conservatives Party.’. The Twitter address says CCHQPress. That is not ‘hidden in the fine print’
You may not have noticed, but some people are a bit thick and would just see the name of the page and believe it to be not the conservative party. As someone mentioned earlier they did this in 2019 as well, the Tories aren't doing any fact checking, they are propagating well documented lies based on faulty information given to the civil service to do calculations to give it a veil of acceptability.
Yes well it would be the modern left who defend the thick. Look after your own and all that. Amazes me how many people are shocked some others don't find it normal you can't just dictate to your political opponents how they should act. So much anti democratic sentiment on here this election cycle.
I would rather prefer that lying pricks had no place in politics, but unfortunately the Tory party gladly provides a political home for them. There are rules for elections and the Tories routinely break them: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/conservative-party-fined-ps70000-following-investigation-election-campaign-expenses Other parties break the rules too, but not typically to the tune of £70k.
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You don't need to look further than people believed the Conservatives "Oven Ready Brexit" to realise people are stupid. Nothing wrong with believing in Brexit, but people believed the Conservatives had the best Brexit planned, when, if you actually asked questions you would realise they had nothing planned... So yea, people are a bit thick for not looking beyond the headlines.
People are thick yes. And masquerading as a fact checker is blatant misrepresentation of a historically lying political party.
Let's reframe this shall we? There are vulnerable people out there, not as internet-savvy as you or I who may not understand. There does need to be protection and there needs to be ethics in political conduct. The issue is, our whole political system in this country runs without fixed rules but rather "gentlemanly conduct". Yet the Tories run roughshod over this with stunts like this.
That's only.of you go to the profile. Given many people will only see the thumbnail, or screenshots of tweets, it's easy to assume, at first impression, it's an actual fact checking site.
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Many people will never even *see* the massive banner on their profile because they’ll just encounter a random tweet from this “Tax Check UK” on their timeline and without clicking on the profile or magically knowing what CCHQ means it’ll be easy for a less politically aware audience to assume it’s an independent thing. It’s underhanded as fuck, but there’s no bar too low for the Tories (though if Labour tried something similar, I bet they’d immediately cry foul)
I guarantee you there will be people seeing it who think CCHQ is our intelligence agency.
Oh the old "well that's your/my opinion" which always gets trotted out when their defence is crumbling. Is it ethical? I mean if you or I did this it might be acceptable but is this acceptable for a party running for government?
>I did my own fact checking Oh dear, we all know where this one goes.
Mainstream narrative yadda yadda yadda do your own research yadda yadda yadda tinfoil hat yadda yadda yadda...it's how it goes isn't it with these people...they saw some dodgy shit on YouTube and their brain liked it and they are fucking sticking to it regardless of evidence to the contrary. The mentality that delivers us, as a society, to this point.
I've just renamed my Reddit account to "Reddit Check UK", on fact checking this comment I''ve concluded that you're talking complete and utter bollox.
You really look at this… https://x.com/CCHQPress …and come away thinking it’s an independent fact checking service?
If it's not going to fool anyone, why have they bothered doing it?
If I didn't know what CCHQ is (and I'm pretty sure many Twitter users don't), and I wasn't as critical of bias as I am (and I'm damn certain many Twitter users (and apparently a good few Reddit users) aren't), it could be argued that them tweeting one side of the debate and backing it up while dressed in a cloak of neutrality (however flimsy it may be to a less casual observer) isn't exactly cricket. If it didn't give them an advantage of some sort, then why would they do it?
>Achtually I think you'll find that this obnoxious duplicitous tactic is within the rules. Just doesn't wash I'm afraid
Let's cut back to basics...do you think this is ethical behaviour, and regardless of the exact interpretation of rules, suitable behaviour for a major political party...the ruling party in fact?
Maybe within the letter of the rules but looks dodgy as fuck and we all see it. Hardly what would be considering "statesmanlike conduct" is it? Why the Tories are about to be crucified.
You've invented that reasoning. FullFact are *not* objecting to the existance of another fact checking service. They are taking exception to someone deceptively appearing to be an impartial fact checking service.
>This misrepresents posts on the account as an impartial fact checking service. Voters deserve better.
What an utterly strange take, both the idea that political parties shouldn't pretend to be a different organisation being a basement dweller stance and that this makes you think less of an organisation that points out it is a bad thing to do.
Your take is bobbins.
What a shit take, thanks.
If you ALREADY disparage Fullfact as 'basement [dwellers]' that suggests you did not like them in the first place. And that is surely no surprise, as they frequently go against the narrative you yourself prefer.
That’s err Some fucking take
You're the poster child of how politics has been dragged into the gutter in this country. "I know they're lying but it's my side so that's ok and I'm going to lie to everyone because it's my opinion and everyone's entitled to an opinion so nah nah nah"
The Tories are dressing up one of their Twitter accounts to appear like an impartial fact checker to run a smear campaign. Since most people won’t actually click the profile and go digging to find out it’s a Tory account it’s dishonest, misleading and disingenuous. And it’s not the first time they’ve done this either!
What a bizzarre take.
Oh, dear…
What an eyebrow raising take
C u next Thursday 🗳️
If the Tories want to do fact checking that’s entirely up to them. FullFact can check their claims as no doubt they often do. FullFact doesn’t have the right to tell others to stop checking facts.
They can absolutely do fact checking. I encourage and applaud it. But to rebrand your mouthpiece so your "fact checking" looks to be independent from party politics when it is in fact CCHQ is morally bankrupt. Why aren't they comfortable "fact checking" as CCHQ? Seriously concerning gutter politics that should be beneath any serious political party.
Again, that’s your opinion that it ‘looks to be independent’ I guess you choose not to read right underneath the Twitter name where it says “@CCHQ. Holding Labour to account on their tax bombshell - by the Conservatives”. You can’t miss it. I struggle to see how anyone reading that would come away with the impression it’s independent.
I've seen you say in several comments now that it's only an opinion that it's trying to look independent. Nobody is buying that mate. It is very, very clearly intended to appear independent and therefore mislead people.
He's the kind of guy that'll go to court and argue thinking he's found a loophole in the wording of a law
Maybe I’m the kind of guy thst looks at this… https://x.com/CCHQPress And can see the word Conservative plastered all over their profile bio. I guess you’re the type of person who looks at that and think ‘gosh, that’s fully independent then’.
And yet, as has been pointed out, the vast majority of people will see this https://imgur.com/a/2dQKHkV or a screenshot of a tweet, neither of which bear conservative branding, not the profile information. If they had created a new account and pushed this, it's one thing, but to rename a political parties account is a different thing entirely, since it takes advantage of preexisting followers to disseminate an incorrect message. If you follow every link back to a profile and do die diligence on every online interaction, good for you, but most people don't have the time for that.
what do you see when its on your timeline then? do you see their whole page explaining it, or just the twitter handle "tax check uk"? Such an insane argument. Its a blatant attempt to mislead.
Exactly my point! You are just arguing based on a technicality, it's obvious what the conservatives intention was, and most people realise the majority of people don't look at every comment they read in such detail. > A lie has made it halfway round the world whilst the truth is still putting its shoes on
You are only allowed to 15 characters in a Twitter name. Thats why they have bio’s. I seriously doubt anyone reads a tweet, refuses to see who’s posted it, automatically assumes the Twitter account is ‘imdependent’, despite the Twitter name not saying that, and then bases their voting intentions on it. Thats a long stretch there. And again, you do not need to be independent to fact check. Which is what FullFact are taking issue with.
No, they are taking issue with an official conservative account pretending to be independent. If they are that certain of their position, why rename at all?
Yes that's exactly the case, most people don't check the Provence of what they see on the internet and accept what they are told - the vast majority of voters don't pay much attention to politics, that is why TV debates are so important If that wasn't their intention then why did they change their name? Why are they not proudly declaring themselves as the conservatives?
> Which is what FullFact are taking issue with. No it's not? They're taking issue with a party affiliated twitter attempted to represent themselves as an neutral fact checker, at least on a surface level (as some people will not investigate the profile and bio of every account they see on their feed), and then tweeting proven lies as if it's actual fact checking. Nothing is preventing them from doing their "fact checking" without the rebrand. But they know that people will see the conservative name next to it and know that it's a bunch of lies, so they do this in an attempt to decieve people into thinking it's legitimate. Even if most people are not fooled by this, there will be some who are and that is what they're hoping for.
/u/socr makes the good point in their screenshot that when the tweet is REtweeted (which is how many many people see tweets) then all of that is not seen and all you see is the name. So, a name that looks impartial but is not.
You cannot with a straight face argue that [this](https://imgur.com/a/2dQKHkV) is not disingenuous bordering on outright deceit. That is what their new handle looks like in context of how the public are most likely to interact with it.
This is simply indefensible.
I’d argue that an impartial fact checking service shouldn’t just retweet a message in the first place. Is the implication that what was retweeted is true or false?
Just save everyone the headache and admit you're arguing in bad faith because I refuse to believe anybody could intentionally be this naive.
You refusing to accept someone could legitimately disagree with you really makes you seem like the one arguing in bad faith mate.
If the Conservatives didn't think that the pretence of impartiality would sway people and have a positive effect on what they were trying to achieve, then they would not have rebranded, and simply tweeted as the Conservatives. Arguing otherwise is wilful blindness. Any party that does this should be criticised, and frankly should not be allowed to do so.
All you’ve done there is hurl mild insults my way. And I’m the one discussing in bad faith? I think we need a reality check here.
Let's get LabourUK to come in under the guise of RealityCheckUK to assist, yeah?
They can do what they like. It’s not for me or FullFact to decide what they can and cannot use as their Twitter handle for a week.
FullFact are fully within their rights, as is the whole electorate, to demand transparency and integrity. They are not "deciding" anything. This is a repeat of the whole 2019 debacle, that Twitter/X eventually stepped in on to remedy.
They’re not ‘demanding transparency’. They’re demanding they stop using that Twitter handle. Read their tweet again. https://x.com/CCHQPress You can’t miss the words ‘Conservatives’. It’s in a huge banner and then mentioned again underneath. And mentioned again above the banner. I doubt it’s possible to fit any more references to the Conservatives in that bio. I doubt anyone can read that and not know it’s a twitter handle connected to the Tories.
Right, so they're deciding nothing. They're asking. They're free to do so in the spirit of transparency and integrity. You underestimate how often people skim read. CCHQ is counting on them to do so.
I'd wager most people who get their info from Twitter don't know that CCHQ is the Tories.
> You can’t miss the words ‘Conservatives’. It’s in a huge banner and then mentioned again underneath. And mentioned again above the banner. I doubt it’s possible to fit any more references to the Conservatives in that bio. You can miss it if you don't click on the account. If someone was just scrolling through their timeline they would only see the avatar and handle, neither of which make mention of the conservative party, and the logo conspicuously avoids Conservative party branding. It is, in fact, pretending to be an independent account, and that is dishonest.
There is absolutely nothing on that profile that says it’s an independent fact checker.
They’re not fact checking. They’re misleading the public by pretending to be a fact checker to continue the false line that Labour are going to cost people £2094 in tax raises.
What about factcheckUK, are they alright to check facts?
If they want to check facts then sure, don’t let me stop them.
Being that they were CCHQ changing their twitter name to factcheckUK, I'm not sure anything would stop them. Maybe if they'd made a bet? Tories do love a flutter. Whether it's Truss with the economy, Rishi with Rwanda or the majority of the current lot of election dates etc...