Sunday, December 22

Russian Twitter accounts helped opposition in UK election: Report

According to a new research, it has been revealed that Russian Twitter accounts pumped out messages in support of the opposition Labour party in an attempt to influence last year’s British election.

About 6,500 automated accounts had sent messages praising opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his policies in the closing stages of the election confirmed a research by Swansea University and The Sunday Times.

Further, the study has found that 10 messages from the accounts about Labour backed the party. In contrast, nine out of 10 tweets about the Conservatives were hostile.

The messages also targeted Prime Minister Theresa May for refusing to take part in televised election debates and criticised her for cutting police numbers in the wake of the Manchester bombing.

Matt Hancock, the culture minister said in a statement,

The new revelations are extremely concerning. It is absolutely unacceptable for any nation to attempt to interfere in the democratic elections of another country.

Earlier too the British government had put allegations over Russia for meddling in elections and planning out fake stories in the media but has denied that Russia has successfully interfered in British elections.