The two biggest pieces of disinformation in the UK election have come from the government

London CNN Business — These days, everyone is concerned about foreign actors spreading disinformation in the run-up to elections. During Tuesday night’s debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, the official Twitter account that represents the press department of Johnson’s Conservative Party changed its name from CCHQPress to “factcheckUK.” The account’s bio stated that it would be “Fact checking Labour from CCHQ.” At a stroke, the account had gone from being clearly associated with a political party to appearing to be an independent fact checker. After an almighty storm, Twitter said that further attempts at deception would result in “decisive corrective action.” For the party of government to stand accused of deliberately duping the public is deeply problematic. And that’s the reason fact-checkers exist,” explains Alastair Reid, digital editor at First Draft, a non-profit organization working to expose disinformation around the world. In response to the criticism, Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly tweeted that the Labour Party had its very own fact checking Twitter account that, again, a cursory glance doesn’t make clear is affiliated with the UK’s official opposition.