Petition · past parliament

Require the promotion and distribution of "factchecking" during an election

Rejected 17 signatures

What the petition asks

Election/Referendum campaigns are filled with claims by all sides, and too frequently these claims are misleading or outright lies. Campaign material/broadcasts should carry a web address to an independent fact checker, and government should regularly distribute fact checked information
"A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes"

Not everyone has good access to the internet, not everyone has the time to go searching for context behind a campaigns claims during an election.

The Electoral Commission should:
1) Appoint an appropriate independent fact checker to be the official source of assessing campaign claims, and to promote them during an election period.
2) Legally require campaign material to prominently display the web address of the independent fact checker, just as betting adverts must display the "Gamble aware" web address.
3) Fund, or themselves distribute, regular publications (leaflets) of recently fact-checked claims to every registered voter's home, provided by the independent fact checker during the campaign.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

Timeline

25 Jun 2016 Petition opened for signatures
8 Jul 2016 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 17
Status Rejected
Rejected 8 Jul 2016

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.