Claims of Russian interference in the general election campaign are “gravely concerning”, the deputy prime minister has said.
Mr Dowden told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that Moscow allegedly using Facebook pages to spread support for Nigel Farage “is a classic example from the Russian playbook”.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) says it has been monitoring five co-ordinated Facebook pages which have been spouting Kremlin talking points, with some posting in support of Reform UK.
Mr Dowden, who has called the ABC report “gravely concerning”, told Sky News: "This is something that I’ve warned about for some time.
"There is a threat in all elections, and indeed we see it in this election, from hostile state actors seeking to influence the outcome of the election campaign.
“Russia is a prime example of this and this is a classic example from the Russian playbook.”
He added that this was a “low-level use of bots”.
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The broadcaster also reportedly found most of the administrators for each page are based in Nigeria, which is a significant connection as previous online Russian propaganda networks were found to have been operating from Africa.
The reports come after Mr Farage faced a backlash for saying he blames the West and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Farage called it “cobblers” to claim bots generated by foreign state actors could interfere with the election outcome - as he launched a personal attack on Mr Dowden.
Meanwhile, Brexit remains the Will Of The People, with both major parties absolutely ruling out any reversal as not to betray the robust, unvarnished opinions of true Brits like Barry the football-loving squaddie from Southampton whose Twitter account is now either a big-haired homeschooling mom from Missouri or the social media officer of Palestinians For Trump.
Colin from Portsmouth is on the line hello Colin!
Meanwhile, Sean Cromber has a lorry full of plastic sex arses stuck at Calais.
Fake accounts are definitely a problem, but the people who voted leave are real not Russian bots.
Politicians haven’t done a U-turn on Brexit because basically everyone outside of a small % of highly political people is sick of talking about it, so making it your platform to restart the debate would be a massive own goal.