Change UK's old Twitter account 'hijacked' to tweet pro-Brexit propaganda

'Sadly our former handle has been hijacked by someone making mischief,' political group says

(AFP/Getty)

Change UK's old Twitter handle has been hijacked to tweet pro-Brexit propaganda after the pro-remain party gave up control of its name.

The group recently announced it would change both its website and its title on the social media site, apparently as part of yet another rebrand. It said its Twitter handle would go from being an abbreviation of The Independent Group, its name until relatively recently, to "ForChange_Now".

When it moved its Twitter account, it took all of the followers and posts that had existed on that old handle with it. But it failed to register that old name, allowing anyone to use it – and very quickly someone, apparently enthusiastic about Brexit, did.

The party's old campaign literature and documents still linked out to the old name at the time of writing, instructing people to head to that Twitter account for further information about the party.

Anyone visiting that account will see a torrent of pro-Brexit propaganda, which has retweeted a series of negative posts about the group and a large banner at the top refers to them as "Cringe UK - The Terrible Group".

"The only thing we'll change is our name, constantly," the bio on that account, which already has thousands of followers, reads. "Parody of a parody of a political party. Brexit means Brexit."

The real Change UK confirmed on the newly named account that it had changed both its web address and its handle.

"Sadly our former handle has been hijacked by someone making mischief," it wrote. "Our message is clear - politics is broken, we need to change it. We are arguing for a #PeoplesVote & for #Remain in these elections."

The group has repeatedly changed its name and branding since it was launched earlier this year.

It has also run into trouble with its logo – with the Electoral Commissioning rejecting its logo for including a hashtag, and leaving the party without branding on the official ballot papers.