Thread by @rowlsmanthorpe, THREADFor the last six weeks, I've been covering the digital election, in [...]

THREAD

For the last six weeks, I& #39;ve been covering the digital election, in its all horror and, well, more horror

I& #39;m not allowed to tweet about politics tomorrow and after that I probably won& #39;t want to, so with apologies for the self-referentiality, here are the things I found:

1. The viral WhatsApp messages urging British Hindus to vote against Labour - something that& #39;s still going on now

Some v.extreme messages were sent by a member of a local Conservative party. After our report, the Tories launched an investigation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NqK13VtLUU">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

2. A sign of things to come. This Tory ad in Milton Keynes took something Jeremy Corbyn said in 2011 out of context to make it seem as if he “condemned” voters

One local resident told me it was "misleading". @WhoTargetsMe called it voter suppression
https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-tories-target-milton-keynes-voters-with-anti-corbyn-ad-11851430">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

3a. Another sign of things to come. Our analysis of leaders’ Facebook pages showed Jo Swinson lagging behind on almost every metric
https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-jo-swinson-has-a-facebook-problem-11855013">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

3b. I did a lot of work in this campaign with my favourite data journalist, @C_AguilarGarcia

Best example of her brilliance: this analysis of the emoji reactions to the leaders’ posts. Five weeks later, Corbyn outperforming for sadness feels even truer
https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-jo-swinson-has-a-facebook-problem-11855013">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

4. On 12 November, Labour was hit by a cyber attack

Five minutes after it was announced, I broke the news that it was a DDOS attack live on air (video in the link) https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1203248/Labour-Party-news-cyber-attack-election-2019-latest-computer-hack-mobile">https://www.express.co.uk/news/poli...

Corbyn under fire for exaggerating cyber attack: Expert says incident was 'low level'

JEREMY Corbyn's claims that Labour has been targeted by a "very serious" cyber-attack have been thrown into doubt after the National Cyber Security Centre described it as "low level" - with another...

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1203248/Labour-Party-news-cyber-attack-election-2019-latest-computer-hack-mobile

5. We all (me included) spend too much time on content and not enough on digital infrastructure

When Labour relaunched its phone canvassing app, Dialogue, I revealed what was new – including gamified “badges” to motivate campaigners
https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-labour-launches-new-phone-canvassing-app-with-badges-to-motivate-campaigners-11860363">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

6. Another scoop: the Brexit Party was being investigated by the ICO for failing to hand over personal data

Was? Is? I have no idea if it& #39;s still going on – why on earth should be allowed to know such things? https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-party-under-investigation-for-failing-to-hand-over-personal-data-11864790">https://news.sky.com/story/bre...

Brexit Party under investigation for 'failing to hand over personal data'

An investigation into Nigel Farage's party has been launched by the Information Commissioner's Office.

https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-party-under-investigation-for-failing-to-hand-over-personal-data-11864790

7. My analysis of the CCHQ / FactCheckUK stunt, inspired by data from one of my many fantastic Sky News colleagues, @LivMoloney

Tl:dr: it probably worked
https://news.sky.com/story/conservatives-fact-check-twitter-stunt-may-have-been-sinister-but-it-was-effective-11865840">https://news.sky.com/story/con...

8. Remember the Tories’ spoof Labour Manifesto site?

With my reporting soulmate @ajmartinsky, I revealed that Google had breached its own rules by running an ad for it without a disclaimer
https://news.sky.com/story/google-breaches-own-rules-with-undisclosed-tory-attack-ad-11866416">https://news.sky.com/story/goo...

9. Two weeks later, Google breached its own rules again

It still hasn’t said how many times this happened, nor what has been done to prevent it happening again

Great to have so much accountability! https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-google-breaks-its-political-advertising-rules-for-second-time-11877850">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

General election: Google breaks its political advertising rules for second time

An advert for the Labour Party didn't appear with a disclaimer of who paid for it, for the second time this campaign.

https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-google-breaks-its-political-advertising-rules-for-second-time-11877850

10. A story about the data driving the campaigns, with @OpenRightsGroup

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤖" title="Robotergesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Robotergesicht">Labour ranks every voter in each constituency on key issues, including "austerity"

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤖" title="Robotergesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Robotergesicht">Conservatives use an algorithm to guess age and gender

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤖" title="Robotergesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Robotergesicht">Both parties are often waay out https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-labour-and-conservatives-have-your-data-but-its-wrong-11871822">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

General election: Labour and Conservatives have your data – but it's wrong

The Labour Party is ranking every voter in each constituency on key issues, including "austerity", "inequality" and "immigration", Sky News can reveal.

https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-labour-and-conservatives-have-your-data-but-its-wrong-11871822

11. I write a column every week about tech and politics.

This was the one I wrote after Labour& #39;s broadband announcement - a rare moment when we actually talked about policy https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-sovereignty-if-its-not-technological-it-wont-count-11860665">https://news.sky.com/story/sky...

Sky Views: Sovereignty? If it's not technological, it won't count

Sky Views: Sovereignty? If it's not technological, it won't count

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-sovereignty-if-its-not-technological-it-wont-count-11860665

12. One of the weirdest stories of the campaign. A Lib Dem official faked an email to quash a negative story from @opendemocracy

The Lib Dems launched an investigation…. And we still haven’t heard what they found

Three cheers for accountability! https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-lib-dem-official-accused-of-faking-email-to-quash-negative-story-11875470">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

General election: Lib Dem official accused of faking email to quash negative story

The Lib Dems have suspended a member of staff involved in producing the email and have launched an enquiry into the matter.

https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-lib-dem-official-accused-of-faking-email-to-quash-negative-story-11875470

13. The discussion around voter fraud is undercovered and extremely grim. With @ISDglobal, I tracked the spread of one narrative: the claims of electoral fraud in the Peterborough by-election

What we found was not pleasant
https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-voter-fraud-claims-are-being-weaponised-to-spread-islamophobia-says-think-tank-11877169">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

13. Political parties are using gifs to push their message, led by the SNP, whose Giphy channel has 20m+ views

I was struck by a phrase @rosscolquhoun used when telling me about this: “Cut and paste activism”

To me that describes a lot of this campaign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTyNAH4AgY&t=93s">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

14. The fake Corbyn tweets that went viral after the London Bridge attack were collectively workshopped on 4Chan in a horribly efficient decentralised disinformation effort

With @AJMartinSky and our invaluable friends at @ISDglobal https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-fake-corbyn-tweets-on-london-bridge-attack-tried-to-sow-doubt-among-voters-11878560">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

General election: Fake Corbyn tweets on London Bridge attack tried to 'sow doubt' among voters

After the London Bridge attack, an organised effort to spread fake tweets from Jeremy Corbyn began to manipulate social media.

https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-fake-corbyn-tweets-on-london-bridge-attack-tried-to-sow-doubt-among-voters-11878560

15. A local profile of Canterbury, one of the most fascinating races in the country

My incredible producer @valeriehamill and I went inside the candidates’ social media strategies – including the very slick Tory operation run by @WestminsterDigi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKIGj5tHpew">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

16. One of the big trends of this election has been the opaque groups running attack ads on Facebook

I looked at one anti-Labour housing policy campaigner – and found the estate agents she was quoting didn’t say the things she said they did
https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-woman-accused-after-posting-ads-costing-17-000-on-facebook-attacking-labour-11880162">https://news.sky.com/story/gen...

17. We had so much planned for the final week. Then the Facebook Ad Library went down

I broke this story, so of course Facebook sent someone to speak to me about it

Of course not! Don’t be silly. Why answer questions when you could give bland statements? https://news.sky.com/story/researchers-fear-catastrophe-as-political-ads-disappear-from-facebook-library-11882988">https://news.sky.com/story/res...

Researchers fear 'catastrophe' as political ads 'disappear' from Facebook library

Stunned researchers say they fear a "catastrophic" loss of transparency and accountability if the ads are gone forever.

https://news.sky.com/story/researchers-fear-catastrophe-as-political-ads-disappear-from-facebook-library-11882988

No. 18 hasn& #39;t happened yet - it& #39;s our #ElectionSocial show, where we get to relive this, as if you& #39;d ever want to

Actually I can& #39;t wait: do tune in at 9.45 tomorrow on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter or Facebook

8 straight hours of this. What could be better? https://twitter.com/i/status/1204137544813858821">https://twitter.com/i/status/...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1204137544813858821

Finally, before I get turned into a dogs at polling station-shaped pumpkin: some thanks. This has been a huge effort by everyone at Sky News, especially the Under the Radar team: @LivMoloney, @AJMartinSky, @adamparkersky, @C_AguilarGarcia and our bold leader @skybod

Thanks as always to producer extraordinaire @SkyNewsValerie for making everything happen and to @DavidMapstone and @alfie_alford for letting me do what I love. Fingers crossed for another election in February... I& #39;m sure you all feel the same way!

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