Monday, April 29, 2024
Dirty Tricks
One way of telling if an election is imminent is when the number of dirty tricks being played by party workers on their opponents start to get out of hand.
We have already seen the campaign manager of a Tory MP buying up domain names in their Lib Dem opponent's name before directing them to the Tory's website, now we have allegations that Tory staff in London have been running a network of anti-Ulez Facebook groups riddled with racism and abuse.
The Guardian reports that Conservative party staff and activists are secretly operating a network of Facebook groups that have become a hotbed of racism, misinformation and support for criminal damage.
They add that an investigation has identified 36 groups that appear to be separate grassroots movements opposing the expansion of ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) schemes to reduce air pollution. They do not say they were set up by the Conservatives as part of a coordinated political campaign:
The closed groups – which have a combined membership of 38,000 – have been a forum for Islamophobic attacks on Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan, with members calling him a “terrorist sympathiser” and a “khaki punt” and saying they would pay to get him “popped”. Other posts promote white supremacist slogans, antisemitic conspiracy theories and have encouraged the destruction of Ulez enforcement cameras.
The findings by Greenpeace’s investigative unit, Unearthed, shared with the Observer, are the latest controversy to embroil the party over its campaigning tactics and attacks on Khan. Its former deputy chairman, Lee Anderson, was suspended in February after claiming “Islamists” were controlling the London mayor, and a Tory attack video used scenes of a panicked crowd at a New York subway station to claim Londoners were in fear of crime.
Senior Tories have made posts in some of the groups, including the London mayoral candidate Susan Hall, who is a member of six groups and has posted in two. Hall did not respond to requests for comment.
The findings also raise questions about transparency. It is not made clear to the groups’ members that they are linked to the Conservatives. But most share the same three administrators, believed to be two CCHQ staffers and an activist who helped run an MP’s digital campaigns.
Rachel Cromie, an administrator of all 36 groups, is a Tory councillor in Haywards Heath, Sussex. Her current register of interests lists Conservative campaign HQ in a section on employment and she has previously been described as an area campaign manager for the party. An earlier register of interests shows she was head of operations for a political consultancy founded by a former consultant at Cambridge Analytica. Cromie did not respond to requests for comment.
Another Conservative party employee, who has been one of its digital campaign managers since February this year, is an administrator of 27 groups. Others include councillors, party officials and a local mayor.
The Observer also found Tory activists posting in the groups without declaring their political affiliation. One posted a meme calling Khan an “arse” alongside laughing emojis. The approach appears to have enabled the targeting of political messages at certain groups without the need to follow Facebook transparency rules, which require formal ads to carry a disclaimer.
The forthcoming General Election is already looking as if it might be very spicy.
We have already seen the campaign manager of a Tory MP buying up domain names in their Lib Dem opponent's name before directing them to the Tory's website, now we have allegations that Tory staff in London have been running a network of anti-Ulez Facebook groups riddled with racism and abuse.
The Guardian reports that Conservative party staff and activists are secretly operating a network of Facebook groups that have become a hotbed of racism, misinformation and support for criminal damage.
They add that an investigation has identified 36 groups that appear to be separate grassroots movements opposing the expansion of ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) schemes to reduce air pollution. They do not say they were set up by the Conservatives as part of a coordinated political campaign:
The closed groups – which have a combined membership of 38,000 – have been a forum for Islamophobic attacks on Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan, with members calling him a “terrorist sympathiser” and a “khaki punt” and saying they would pay to get him “popped”. Other posts promote white supremacist slogans, antisemitic conspiracy theories and have encouraged the destruction of Ulez enforcement cameras.
The findings by Greenpeace’s investigative unit, Unearthed, shared with the Observer, are the latest controversy to embroil the party over its campaigning tactics and attacks on Khan. Its former deputy chairman, Lee Anderson, was suspended in February after claiming “Islamists” were controlling the London mayor, and a Tory attack video used scenes of a panicked crowd at a New York subway station to claim Londoners were in fear of crime.
Senior Tories have made posts in some of the groups, including the London mayoral candidate Susan Hall, who is a member of six groups and has posted in two. Hall did not respond to requests for comment.
The findings also raise questions about transparency. It is not made clear to the groups’ members that they are linked to the Conservatives. But most share the same three administrators, believed to be two CCHQ staffers and an activist who helped run an MP’s digital campaigns.
Rachel Cromie, an administrator of all 36 groups, is a Tory councillor in Haywards Heath, Sussex. Her current register of interests lists Conservative campaign HQ in a section on employment and she has previously been described as an area campaign manager for the party. An earlier register of interests shows she was head of operations for a political consultancy founded by a former consultant at Cambridge Analytica. Cromie did not respond to requests for comment.
Another Conservative party employee, who has been one of its digital campaign managers since February this year, is an administrator of 27 groups. Others include councillors, party officials and a local mayor.
The Observer also found Tory activists posting in the groups without declaring their political affiliation. One posted a meme calling Khan an “arse” alongside laughing emojis. The approach appears to have enabled the targeting of political messages at certain groups without the need to follow Facebook transparency rules, which require formal ads to carry a disclaimer.
The forthcoming General Election is already looking as if it might be very spicy.
