Campaigners demand law banning political lies as think-tank warns ‘disinformation is becoming normalised’ in elections Institute for Strategic Dialogue says it has been ‘taken aback’ by level of deceit in 2019 general election campaign

Were a prize to be handed out for the biggest whopper of the 2019 general election campaign, it would be from a crowded field of contenders. From efforts to smear the family of a four-year-old boy after bed shortages left him lying on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary to the bizarre suggestion that Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson kills squirrels, the past six weeks have brought a disheartening cavalcade of electoral deception and fakery.



Many of the tactics that have drawn the most criticism have come from the main political parties themselves, including the decision by the Conservatives to re-brand their Twitter account to make it appear like an independent fact-checking service during a crucial leadership debate.

Researchers told i that they have been shocked by the sheer depth and range of misleading and untruthful information being deployed to discredit or damage parties and candidates.

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The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based counter-extremism think tank, said it had recorded tactics that included the use of anti-Muslim tropes on Twitter accounts to try to influence Hindu voters to abandon Labour and fake tweets and Whatsapp messages sent in the immediate aftermath of the London Bridge attack suggesting that Jeremy Corbyn had criticised the police response and been sympathetic to the killer.

‘Dragged into the dirt’

Jacob Davey, senior research manager at ISD, told i: “We have monitored a number of elections and we were taken aback by the level of disinformation in this election. Our research finds that deceptive, distortive and disruptive campaigning practices are becoming increasingly normalised, which threatens the integrity of our democracy.

“It is crucial we have open and honest public debate around what is acceptable campaigning practice, and re-examine existing electoral regulation.”

In response to concerns about lies and disinformation, democracy campaigners and the editor of the newspaper that broke the story of the four-year-old child’s care called for practical measures to restore trust in political campaigning yesterday, arguing that it has reached all-time low.

Compassion in Politics, which argues for electoral reform to tackle what it says is now a crisis in the conduct of politics, said it has drafted proposed legislation to make it illegal for parties to knowingly make untrue or misleading statements.

Election campaigning deepens divisions

It follows polling last month which showed that 83 per cent of voters believe that the behaviour of candidates during elections leads to greater divisions in society, and one in two are put off politics as result.

Jennifer Nadel, the group’s co-founder, told i: “Democracy has really been dragged into the dirt during this election and we are seeing voters disengaging from the process.

“As the mother of democracies, we have become dysfunctional and it is particularly disturbing that it is coming from the top of our political parties. We urgently need action to ensure that never again can our politics be conducted in this manner.”

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Social media

Monitoring organisations say the onslaught of disinformation has come from multiple sources and taken many forms, much of it conducted via social media.

The major parties have been accused of shady tactics ranging from the selective editing of a video by the Tories to misrepresent the views of the Labour Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, to widespread use by all three main parties of pamphlets made to look like authentic local newspapers.

Labour has also been accused of putting into the public domain documents detailing US-UK trade discussions which the website Reddit claims are linked to a known Russian disinformation campaign. Labour has not commented on the source of the documents and insisted that publication was in the public interest.

While co-ordinated meddling and manipulation by a state actor, namely Russia, was at the heart of suspicions in 2017, it seems that, with heavy irony, disinformation has been widely democratised in 2019. As coverage of the case of the child at Leeds General Infirmary and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lacklustre response began to gain momentum this week, a fake counter-narrative was widely shared via Facebook and Twitter casting aspersions on the child’s family – this despite that the case as first reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post had been confirmed as true and accurate by the hospital itself.

In an editorial, the title’s sister paper, the Yorkshire Post issued a cri de coeur, decrying the “spin, conjecture and downright deceit” which it said had characterised the election campaign and called for a government review.

It added: “The people of this country must never again be asked to navigate a maelstrom of misinformation in order to decide who will govern them.”