British Election Update | 109 comments (109 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

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Another Angry Voice - Beware of Tory Dark Ads

We all know that the Tories are bankrolled by a rogue's gallery of right-wing billionaires and that they're awash with cash for this general election right?
We also know that they have absolute contempt for the electoral rules after they deliberately misdeclared expenses at the 2015 general election don't we?
We also know the increasingly important role big data is playing in elections, and how psychological profiling and targeted social media adverts helped to swing the EU referendum and the 2016 US election right?
Tory dark ads
Well what the Tories have been up to during the 2017 general election is absolutely shocking. They've been creating all kinds of fearmongering shock adverts, paying Facebook to target them at people, and refusing to provide examples to the Electoral Commission of what they've been sending out.
What is worse is that in the days before the voter registration deadline they used their secretive dark ads to deliberately undermine a young adult voter registration drive, by replacing the voter registration adverts with their own nasty smear jobs on Jeremy Corbyn.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun May 28th, 2017 at 12:28:02 PM EST
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And more on that subject, with examples;-

Vox Political - Mike Sivier - Voters in marginal constituencies targeted by dirty Tory `dark' adverts

The Conservatives have found another way to cheat national election spending limits - on Facebook, it seems.
They have been using Facebook's advertising system, which demands that users `bid' for the limited number of slots available, to drown out others and force `dark' adverts, filled with lies, on readers.
There is no regulation of this behaviour.
Delyn, where the Tories' dirty trick was discovered, is a marginal constituency held by Labour's David Hanson - but he will lose it if there is a swing of just 3.9 per cent to the Conservatives.
And the Tories are feeding Delyn Facebook users lies about a nonexistent `Death Tax' (fabricated in an Express article), and about Labour increasing taxes for everybody (in fact, 95 per cent of earners will not be affected; only the top five per cent would have to pay more).

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun May 28th, 2017 at 01:45:15 PM EST
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Guardian - Carole Cadwallader - Revealed: Tory `dark' ads targeted voters' Facebook feeds in Welsh marginal seat

The Observer has obtained a series of Conservative party attack ads sent to voters last week in the key marginal constituency of Delyn, north Wales. Activists captured the ads using dummy Facebook accounts after finding that their own ad - encouraging young people to register to vote - were being "drowned out" by the Tory ads.
The Conservatives have refused to supply examples of adverts the party is sending to individual voters on Facebook, despite growing concern over unregulated online election activity.
Following a series of articles in the Observer concerning the use of data by Vote Leave and Leave.EU during last year's referendum, the Information Commissioner's Office has launched a wide-ranging investigation over possible breaches of UK data laws.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun May 28th, 2017 at 01:55:41 PM EST
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British Election Update | 109 comments (109 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)