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To: UK Government

Political Campaign Claims to be Independently Fact Checked before Use

Make it a legal requirement that all claims made for the purposes of an election or referendum must be independently fact-checked or peer-reviewed by Academic institutions before they can be publicly shared.

Failure to observe the requirement should incur substantial, punitive, consequences proportionate to the level of financial backing available to the principal Party, or in the case of an independent the individual.

Deliberate flouting of the requirement should disqualify the individual(s) from standing in that election and ban them from holding public office for 6 years.

Think tanks, media organizations, and lobby groups cannot be used for verification

Why is this important?

The EU referendum was a disgrace, both sides exaggerated and misled despite the particularly serious nature of the decision. Moreover, the Leave campaign was founded almost entirely on deliberate misrepresentation and creating imaginary fears.

Democracy can only work with fair and accurate information and must not be reduced to who has the best marketing and manipulation strategies.

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Updates

2016-06-28 16:16:06 +0100

500 signatures reached

2016-06-26 21:06:59 +0100

Someone else has created a much vaguer, less useful in my opinion, petition but it has been shared more widely so you might want to sign that as well - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/119416

2016-06-25 18:57:16 +0100

100 signatures reached

2016-06-25 06:56:27 +0100

50 signatures reached

2016-06-24 21:43:03 +0100

25 signatures reached

2016-06-24 18:55:12 +0100

Here's a damning piece from Channel 4 - the only TV station that seemed to care about the truth.

https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10153841184011939/

2016-06-24 18:35:27 +0100

10 signatures reached