The change during a pivotal debate ahead of what is considered one of the most important general elections in a generation, drew immediate condemnation not just from users but also from organizations on the social media platform.
"It is inappropriate and misleading for the Conservative press office to rename their twitter account 'factcheckUK' during this debate," said Full Fact, an independent British fact checking charity in a post. "Please do not mistake it for an independent fact checking service".
Britain's Labour party joined the wave of criticism saying, "Conservatives' laughable attempt to dupe those watching the ITV Debate by renaming their twitter account shows you can't trust a word they say," the party tweeted from its official account.
The Editor for British Broadcaster Channel 4 News, Ben de Pear, who runs a service with a similar name called 'FactCheck' was also one of those who criticized the Conservative party.
"As the home of the original FactCheck in the UK we need to point out "factcheckUK" has nothing to do with Channel4News," de Pear tweeted. "No political party should be trying to cloak themselves in the guise of independent journalists".
However, Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly rejected the criticism saying that the Twitter account was clearly identified as conservative, and was fact checking the claims put forward by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. "It makes it absolutely clear it's a conservative website, absolutely clear," he told Sky News in an interview after the debate.
CNN has reached out to Twitter. The company has yet to comment publicly on the change in the Conservative party account during the election debate. The move could be seen as a violation of Twitter's impersonation policy, as the social media platform states on the terms section of its website: "Impersonation is a violation of the Twitter Rules."
"Twitter accounts that pose as another person, brand, or organization in a confusing or deceptive manner may be permanently suspended under Twitter's impersonation policy," it also says.
This is not the first time the Conservative party has come under fire for misleading usage of social media platforms.
Earlier in November, it posted a misleadingly edited clip of an interview from the television show Good Morning Britain, that appeared to show Labour's Brexit spokesperson Keir Starmer faltering for words and unable to answer a question from the show's host Piers Morgan. In reality, Starmer answered the question immediately.
Several hours later, the Conservative Party's Press Office retweeted an unedited version of the interview from the Good Morning Britain account, noting that "there have been some enquiries about the veracity of Keir Starmer's interview this morning."
The Conservative Party did not respond to CNN's request for an explanation.
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