A fake Labour party website is spreading disinformation in Britain
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A fake Labour party website is spreading disinformation in Britain

At least this one’s easier to spot than the Twitter from Fact Check Gate

labourmanifesto.co.uk

Siobhan Ball— | Last updated

In a stunning escalation from Tuesday’s Fact Check Gate, where the Tory party temporarily rebranded one of their Twitter accounts as an independent fact-checking service, the party has now made a fake Labour manifesto website.

While significantly more obvious as a piece of propaganda than the Twitter account, thanks to “A website by the Conservative party” written in unobtrusive but still noticeable lettering, that is counterbalanced by the fact that the site’s web address is labourmanifesto.co.uk/ and likely to draw traffic intended for the actual Labour party’s website.

This is exacerbated by the fact that the Tory party also paid Google to have their pseudo-Labour website featured in the top results for people actually searching for the Labour party’s real manifesto and policies.

When asked for comment, Google said “this was a paid-for advert by a verified political advertiser” and reaffirmed that, while they will not allow content likely to undermine trust or participation in the electoral process, they will not be vetting every claim made in political ads.

This website is just the latest in a long line of lies and misdirection from the Tory Party in the run-up to the election.

In addition to multiple small-scale lies, the Tory Party has also edited two separate videos of Labour MPs in order to give a misleading impression of their policies and statements.

As a result, people are questioning whether their actions are legal and what consequences they should face if not.

The Daily Dot has reached out to the Conservative party for comment and will update this article if they respond.

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Siobhan Ball

Siobhan Ball

Siobhan Ball is a historian, archivist, and journalist. She also writes for Autostraddle and bi.org

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