Twitter has said it will take “decisive corrective action” against the Conservative Party if it attempts to use it its accounts to mislead people through its official Twitter account again.
It comes after the party’s press office account – @CCHQPress – was rebranded as ‘factcheckUK’ during Tuesday night’s leaders debate, tweeting about claims made by both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.
The name and photo attached to the account were changed to look like that of an independent fact-checking service.
It was only clear from the account’s @CCHQPress handle and details on the account’s full page that it was a partisan political account run by the Tories.
In one tweet during the debate, the factcheckUK account said Corbyn had “worked to block Brexit”.
“@jeremycorbyn promised to respect the result of the referendum in 2017,” the tweet read.
“Since then he’s worked to block Brexit #GetBrexitDone #BackBoris”
Twitter – which does not appear to have taken any measures over this incident – said it would act if the Conservatives attempted to “mislead” people again.
“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.”
Labour branded the stunt a “laughable attempt” to dupe viewers, adding that it “shows you can’t trust a word they say”.
David Lammy – who is standing for the party in Tottenham in the upcoming election – called on the Electoral Commission to “investigate and punish this blatant attempt to deceive the public”.
On Tuesday, the Electoral Commission said voters were entitled to “transparency and integrity” but said it did not have a role in regulating election campaign content.
Meanwhile Tom Brake, the Lib Dem’s shadow Brexit secretary, said the move was “straight out of Donald Trump or Putin’s playbook”.
“Not content with excluding the voice of Remain from this debate, the Tories are now resorting to deliberately misleading the public,” he said.
“People know they can’t trust a word that Boris Johnson or the Conservatives say. The country deserves better. Only the Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit on day one and build a brighter future.”
On Tuesday Will Moy, the chief executive of independent fact checking charity Full Fact, said it was “inappropriate and misleading” for the Conservatives to rebrand its account.
“Why would a self-respecting political party choose to impersonate something else to put its campaign messages out there?” he asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Moy added: “Let’s be clear, they weren’t putting out accurate information, they were putting out party lines. Unlike a serious fact-checker they weren’t giving sources.”
But Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly defended the rebranding, denying claims that the party was trying to mislead the public.
He told BBC’s Newsnight: “The Twitter handle of the CCHQ press office remained CCHQPress, so it’s clear the nature of the site.”
Challenged by Emily Maitlis that imitating a fact-checking service was “dystopian”, Cleverly replied: “We were calling out the Labour Party’s wilful misinformation about the NHS. And every time they do that, we will call it out.”