“Labour deputy says Farage is a threat to democracy and calls for misinformation clampdown”, the Guardian reports.
Reform UK is destabilising British democracy by spreading divisive material that is being amplified by bots and troll farms, Labour’s deputy leader has said.
Lucy Powell called for tighter laws on social media giants to tackle misinformation, arguing the online space was “open to wealthy individuals, and bad state actors”.
It’s open to everybody, even bad state actors like the UK.
She also highlighted the multimillion-pound donations that have bolstered Reform’s election war chest and “fund their powerful online campaigns”.
Reform UK should put that acknowledgement that they are running a powerful online campaign in their next ad.
Arguing Nigel Farage and his party posed a threat to democracy, she said the law should be strengthened to “tackle the scourge of dis- and misinformation which is ripping communities apart and undermining us all”.
She said Reform’s “exploitation of online algorithms on social media sites is well documented”, as was the way the party had benefited from “bots and troll farms to amplify support”.
A Reform spokesperson said Powell’s claims that its messages were spread by bots and troll farms was “completely untrue” and called her a “conspiracy theorist desperately trying to distract from a failing Labour government”.
“Rather than smearing voters and demanding more state censorship, Labour should be focused on fixing the messes they’ve created,” the spokesperson said.
Clamping down on misinformation? So, they’ll be shutting down The Guardian, The BBC, the Government Information Office….
Whenever you see the phrase “threat to democracy” substitute the phrase “threat to my political preferences” or in some cases “threat to my re-election” and you pretty much have the truth.
FWIW the actual biggest threat to democracy is an unelected, unaccountable, unmanageable, unfire-able civil service, though California taking three weeks to “count the ballots” must be up there with the most transparent threat to democracy where the machinery is so plainly visible.