Tories warned after faking factcheck service on Twitter during debate

The Conservative Party was warned it faced "decisive corrective action" after it used its Twitter account to impersonate legitimate factchecking services during Tuesday night's general election leaders' debate.

The party was under fire on Wednesday after being caught out labelling its press office account as 'factcheckUK', including changing the avatar to a white tick on a purple background from the usual Tory logo.

It appeared to mimic legitimate factcheck organisations such as Full Fact, which is run by a charity and the BBC's Reality Check.

The account was then used to label various pro-Conservative statements as "FACT" during the televised debate between Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

In a statement, Twitter said it was "committed to facilitating healthy debate throughout the UK general election".

"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."

Full Fact chief executive Will Moy said Twitter should have moved sooner to stop the charade from continuing.

"It was an attempt to mislead voters and I think it is inappropriate and misleading for a serious political party to behave that way,” he said. “And it’s surprising as well. Why would a self-respecting political party choose to impersonate something else to put its campaign messages out there?" he told the BBC.

"But the responsibility here is not on Twitter. A political party chose to impersonate an independent fact checking service.

"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.

"They changed their colours, they changed their name the changed their logo to something not resembling the Conservative Party."