Elections watchdog in Russia Brexit probe
2 min read
The UK elections watchdog is looking into whether Russia meddled in the Brexit referendum.
The Electoral Commission said it was talking to Facebook and Twitter after the firms revealed concerns Moscow had tried to influence the 2016 US presidential election.
Bob Posner – the watchdog’s director of political finance and regulation – said any evidence of criminal action would be passed to the police.
“Clearly we have seen the allegations about interference in the American election and it is right that we are in a dialogue with companies like Facebook to ensure that nothing like that happened here,” he told the Times.
“Should our inquiries provide us with evidence that the existing campaigning rules about political finance may have been broken then we will undertake our own investigations as set out in our enforcement policy.
“If we believe other, criminal, offences may have been committed, then these will be referred to the police for investigation.”
Security services have raised concerns that Moscow could be trying to influence political debate in the UK – with social media a major modern battleground.
In the US Russia stands accused of buying at least 3,000 Facebook ads during the US presidential race and using fake accounts to reach more than 150 million people.
Yesterday the Electoral Commission announced an inquiry into Leave.EU boss Arron Banks over concerns he or one of his companies could have been acting as “an agent” during the EU referendum.
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