Labour is struggling to win back voters in Scotland because of social media conspiracy theories that are difficult to debunk, the party’s campaign chief said this morning. Speaking at a LabourList event, Douglas Alexander recounted a story about a voter who supported independence and bought into a conspiracy theories about the oil companies she read on Facebook. This echo chamber poses a great challenge for parties attempting to tell the truth, he said:
‘We’re used to a politics where we share facts but diverge on opinions. We are confronting — increasingly because of the rise of social media — a politics where people’s social media feeds can be an echo chamber for at the best of their opinion opinions and worst of their own prejudices.
‘And that’s a tough challenge for all democratic politicians in every part of the UK. More broadly — how do we engage with a very rapidly changing media landscape in which facts are not common and actually people.’
Alexander acknowledged the Scottish referendum was a ‘seismic event’ which lead to ‘great sense of grief’ for the 45 per cent of Scottish voters who supported for independence. ‘The numbers are bad for Scottish Labour, I’d be the first to recognise that’ he said, noting that ‘it’s been a ‘very feral few months in Scotland’. As one of Labour’s Scottish MPs, Alexander declined to say whether he was one of those calling for yesterday’s unequivocal statement on a coalition with the SNP: ‘I take the old fashioned view that private conversations should remain private.’ On the continued discussion of a coalition with the SNP, Alexander said ‘the prospect of endless pointless questions was pretty much priced in’.
While Labour figures out how to respond to conspiracy theories on Facebook, the short election campaign is near but neither party is making any traction in the polls. Alexander, who has worked on Labour campaigns since 1992, said that he ‘cannot remember a single campaign where at this stage from polling day, the result remains so uncertain’.
Comments