AS BORIS JOHNSON and Jeremy Corbyn blustered their way through an unsatisfying televised debate on November 19th, a range of online fact-checking services helped sort the truth from the tosh. There was Full Fact, an established charity, FactCheck, run by Channel 4—and then there was factcheckUK, a new Twitter-based outfit which seemed particularly keen to pick holes in Mr Corbyn’s arguments.
Although campaigns are tightly regulated offline, the rules have not caught up with technology. Television advertising, for instance, is limited to a few dull party political broadcasts—but parties can broadcast as much as they like on YouTube. There are tight limits on election spending by candidates in their constituencies—but online ads can be bought centrally and targeted locally.
These matters have been discussed at length by MPs, academics and campaigners, but nothing has changed. That is partly because online campaigning falls between several stools. The Electoral Commission regulates election finance but not advertising, the Advertising Standards Agency regulates advertising but not politics, and the Information Commissioner’s Office regulates personal data.