Wayne Bayley: Fake Brexit Party Twitter Account 'sows Discord'
Wayne Bayley: Fake Brexit party Twitter account 'sows discord'
13 November 2019
A former candidate for the Brexit party suggested that a fake Twitter account under his name was intended to "sow discord".
A profile claimed to be Wayne Bayley and was scheduled to stand in Crawley. It posted criticisms of Nigel Farage.
Twitter has now suspended the account, but the fake tweets had already appeared in several news reports.
Mr Bayley believes that an impostor created the profile to "do damage" to his party, or to "sow discord in next election".
The pilot, a retired pilot from Horsham, West Sussex said he was disappointed that Twitter did not act faster to delete the account.
The fake account used an "I" in uppercase instead of the "l" in Mr Bayley’s name. The alteration is easily visible on desktop computers but not on mobile versions.
He stated that it had the "perverse" result of giving him the opportunity for the Brexit party to be promoted.
News websites had cited a tweet from the fake account, stating that Mr Bayley believed he was owed PS10,000 by Mr Farage for the cost of election leaflets and staff that were now redundant after the party decided not to stand candidates in seats with Conservative incumbents.
But Mr Bayley, the real Mr Bayley, said that he believed the decision to be a "masterstroke".
He doesn't believe that "somebody would go to such lengths to attack a person," but he fears that the spread of misinformation would lead to "in everyone's mind there is doubt as to whether or to not what they are being told'
He said the fake account, which appeared to be set up in August, was "sophisticated" and "planned".
"It's not some haphazard bloke in his attic, so you have to ask yourself who stands to benefit and why," he said.
He does not believe it was orchestrated in the name of a Brexit party supporter.
"I cannot see anyone being so contorted, trying get from A to C, but going via Z, X.
"It's possible but it's not an easy way to do it."
Twitter did not respond to a BBC request for comments on Mr Bayley’s concerns.
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