Fresh off the back of a social media storm earlier this week, involving a misleading Twitter account and widespread public condemnation, the Conservative Party has decided to double down on its dodgy digital strategy.

In response to Labour’s manifesto launch this morning, the Tories have created a fake website to advertise Jeremy Corbyn’s policies. They have bought the website domain “labourmanifesto.co.uk”, and have created a website that slams Labour’s ideas.

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When posted on Twitter, the website only has a vague reference to the Conservatives: a small “vote Conservative” banner in the bottom right-hand corner.

Not only this, the Tories are spending money on Google adverts in an attempt to push this website to the top of people’s search results, when they try to find out about the Labour Party.

As mentioned, earlier in the week the Tories caused a storm after rebranding its CCHQ Twitter account to seem like it was an impartial fact checking service. They were accused of actively attempting to mislead voters – condemned by verifiable fact checking services, and by Twitter itself.

While the Labour manifesto manipulation strategy isn’t quite as offensive, it’s still ethically questionable. The Tories are actively trying to dupe voters into clicking a fake Labour manifesto link. As usual, it seems the Tories are willing to do whatever necessary to win power – even (perhaps especially) misleading the public.

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