About

FactCheckGate refers to a controversy surrounding the British Conservative Party who used their press account to pretend to be a fact checking service on Twitter during the first leaders debate of the 2019 United Kingdom general election aired on ITV.

Origin

With a general election announced, due to be held on December 12th, 2019, British broadcasters announced a string of televised leaders debates.

During the first leaders debate which saw Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn participate, the Conservative Party's Press Office account rebranded to "FactCheckUK", pretending to be a fact checking service with aim to scruntise Jeremy Corbyn.

It later emerged after the debate that the account was found out to be used by the Conservative Party who continued using the @CCHQ handle on Twitter.

Reaction

Mainstream media

After the revelation that it was a stunt by the Conservative Party, many media outlets such as BBC News, Sky News, the Independent and more reported on the story. BBC News presenter Emily Maitlis interviewed Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly on the accusations and asked why the party did so on one such occasion.

Twitter

Twitter had responded to the situation shortly after the controversy had risen higher. Twitter said the Conservative Party had misled the public and it would take “decisive corrective action” if a similar stunt was attempted 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.”

Public reaction

In reaction to the controversy, the hashtag "#FactCheckGate" began trending on Twitter with hundreds of tweets being posted shortly after the debate and the next day as well.

Several accounts with verified ticks changed their username and profile picture to mimick the original stunt by the Conservative Party, and some were blocked on Twitter.

Political parties

The Conservative Party responded to the criticism saying that the British public wouldn't have been fooled in the first place.

The Liberal Democrats called on the Electoral Commission to intervene after the incident.

Search Interest

External References