BBC fighting ‘fake news’ with fake Twitter accounts
The state-funded UK broadcaster operates several “sockpuppet” identities representing different political views
A journalist with BBC Verify, the British broadcaster’s new fact-checking spinoff, has admitted to deploying multiple fake Twitter accounts to combat “disinformation.”
In a segment broadcast on Saturday, BBC “disinformation correspondent” Marianna Spring warned the audience that “mistruths can cause really serious harm to societies and the people in them.” She then revealed she had set up multiple “undercover accounts” on Twitter for the BBC’s America broadcast, each one representing different political views so as to better “interrogate” the viewpoints of the network’s target audience.
While the deception was…
