Engaging with campaign material at elections
Your location:
Our research tells us that voters are concerned about receiving misleading information in the run-up to elections.
We want you to be confident whenever you encounter campaign material. This page has tips for how to engage with campaign material and advice about who to contact if you have questions about information you’ve seen or heard. It also sets out what we’re doing to ensure that voters have access to high-quality information.
We use ‘campaign material’ to mean any material that candidates, political parties or non-party campaigners send to voters. It could be an update about what’s happening in the constituency, information about a policy, or promotional material for an election or referendum, for example.
Electoral law only covers certain types of campaign material.
We do not regulate the content of campaign material. However, we encourage all campaigners to carry out their role of influencing voters in a responsible and transparent manner.
Some campaigners may use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create campaign material. We expect anyone using AI-generated campaign material to use it in a way that does not mislead voters, and to label it clearly so that voters know how it has been created.
Generative AI refers to any application that uses artificial intelligence to create new text, photo, audio or video content based on prompts given by users.
Engaging with campaign material
Candidates, political parties and other campaigners may send you campaign material about their views or policies to influence your vote.
It is up to you to decide whether you are persuaded by campaign material you see or hear. We encourage you to carefully consider any campaign material you see or hear. This may include thinking about the possibility that the material has been artificially enhanced or created.
You can ask yourself some questions about campaign material and the claims made in it:
- Does the campaign material reinforce or contradict your views on a certain subject?
- Do you think it pays attention to the detail, or does it overly simplify complex issues?
- Does the campaign material you’ve seen or heard give you a good sense of a party’s or campaigner’s policy position?
If you’re concerned about the quality of any information you encounter, Ofcom has some tips to spot incorrect information. These are:
- Check the source. This isn't necessarily who shared the information with you, but where it originated from. Some campaign and election material must contain an ‘imprint’, which explains who published the material and promoted it.
- Question the source.
- Is it from a trustworthy organisation, an expert in the topic or produced by someone you trust?
- Who wrote it?
- Where was it published?
- Consider whether the writer or the publisher has a reason to want people to think in a certain way?
- Who benefits from you believing the information?
- Take a step back. Before you take something at face value, think about your own motives for wanting to believe it.
The BBC has set out how you may be able to tell that an image has been created by AI.
If you’re able to, you can also do more research into campaigning, for example by reading party manifestos, listening to campaigners or seeing what fact checkers have to say.
The more informed you are, the more you can be sure whether the piece of campaign material is presenting the issues fairly.
Claims made in campaign material
Campaign material will often contain claims about why you should vote in a particular way.
We do not regulate the content of campaign material, and we do not have powers to verify or correct the information included in campaign material. Find out more about our responsibilities and those of other regulators.
Information about electoral processes
As the independent body with responsibility for overseeing elections, if we see false information about voting or election processes, we will seek to correct the information or respond to it.
This could include false information about what happens in a polling station and the ID you need to take with you, material which gives the wrong dates or deadlines for polling day or voter registration, or claims that certain groups of people are not eligible to vote.
Fact checkers
Fact-checking organisations check that prominent claims in public debate are accurate. If you have a question about the accuracy of a claim or about the authenticity of a piece of content, you can check a fact-checking organisation’s website to see if they have already responded to it.
Several UK-based fact-checking organisations such as Full Fact and PA Fact Check comply with the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles.
The BBC and Channel 4 also have fact-checking services, called BBC Verify and FactCheck.
How we work with social media companies and others
We regularly meet representatives from all the major social media and digital companies, including Meta, Google, X, Snap and TikTok. We look closely at the policies they have in place to handle instances of incorrect information about electoral processes. We also assist their voter registration and ‘Get out and vote’ campaigns. Many social media companies promote our website and resources on their platforms in the run-up to elections.
We have also worked closely with other regulators to provide voters with information about campaign material. We are continuing to work with both social media companies and other regulators.
Your location:
Social media and digital platforms
If you are concerned about a specific piece of content you’ve seen on social media or on a digital platform, this may be covered by the platform’s usage policies.
Each of the major social media companies and digital platforms have policies for content about politics and elections. For example, Meta, Google, X, Snap and TikTok have policies on content that could mislead people about political or electoral processes.
Social media and digital platforms that allow political advertising also have specific usage policies for paid-for political adverts. For example, most social media and digital companies which allow political advertising require advertisers placing adverts about UK elections to be based in the UK.
Social media and digital platforms also have their own policies about content generated by AI applications. Some platforms label content generated by AI, while others require those who post or run adverts to make it clear if the content has been created by AI. In some cases, the platforms might not allow certain content generated by AI applications at all.
Find out more about social media companies’ policies