Fake news alert as Ian Blackford hit by coronavirus smears

Ian Blackford's name and the west coast island were trending on Twitter on Tuesday night as a number of accounts accused him of flouting lockdown.

The deputy editor of right-wing platform Breitbart News, Jack Montgomery, was amongst those to call for a media investigation of Blackford over his return home from Westminster as parliament shut at the beginning of lockdown.

At the time, Blackford stated that he had gone home "but into isolation as a precaution" away from his wife Ann, who has an underlying health condition, "and everyone else given the prevalence of the virus in London", adding: "The right thing go do but hard not seeing Ann. #StayHomeSaveLives."

The MP's movements were within the rules, in common with Commons colleagues who returned to their homes around the UK.

At the time of posting – March 26 – the post generated little response. However, after Blackford called for the PM's adviser Dominic Cummings to go over his lockdown travel to Durham over coronavirus infection fears, it has been shared countless times along with allegations that the politician may have caused the fatal outbreak at Skye's Home Farm care home which devastated the community.

Many of these claims have been circulated by anonymised accounts, while Breitbart has suggested that Blackford has "no moral high ground to demand Cummings’ termination for leaving London when he did the same thing".

But supporters of Blackford, who represents Ross, Skye and Lochaber, says he has become the target of a politically-motivated campaign. A friend of the MP, who did not want to be named, said that move is an attempt to "change the narrative of a scandal that is a direct challenge to the authority of the Prime Minister and has serious implications for public health".

And a spokesperson for the politician said: "Ian was travelling home from parliament, as all MPs were doing at the time. This is a farcical twitter disinformation campaign by a far-right website, who are trying – and failing – to distract from the actions of Dominic Cummings."

The Cummings affair also triggered a wave of claims by online accounts claiming that it was a confection aimed at derailing Brexit. Supporters of the Vote Leave campaigner called for a boycott of traditional platforms and claimed he was the victim of a #mediawitchhunt, with #scummedia also trending.

The Twitter account of the Leave.EU campaign, which has more than 292,000 followers, called it "Brexit vengeance, pure and simple".

Sarah Pederson, Professor of Communications and Media at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said the message prove how the story has "broken through the usual bubble of journalists and politicians in a way that few political stories have in the last few years", expressing "concern" about "the spread of false allegations".

Pederson said: "We are now seeing the construction of ‘us and them’ narratives around mainstream media and the general public that are more reminiscent of the state of media in the US."

She went on: "In his own statement, Dominic Cummings attempted to reframe the story as being about the mainstream media [MSM] – suggesting that the MSM was purveying fake news for its own ends, and it is this narrative that has been taken up by some sections of social media.

"Ironically this narrative was one broadcast into our homes by the mainstream media on Bank Holiday Monday.

"I would suggest that the strong role that MSM has played in this story – and the overall unified framing from both left and right-leaning newspapers – has led to a backlash online where the alternative framing, pushed by Cummings and various government voices, has been better able to spread. 

"It is important that all sides of a story are given an airing of course, but it is important that this debate is grounded in facts and not fake news."