Conservative Party has deleted archived speeches and press releases in 10 years preceding election, investigation claims
The Conservative Party has been accused of trying to erase speeches and press releases stretching a 10-year period from online archives.
Allegations: Investigation claims Conservatives have erased archives
An investigation by Computer Weekly revealed that documents between 2000 and 2010 – the Conservative party entered into a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats in 2010 – had been taken down from the Conservative Party website, and all traces had been erased from the Internet Archive, the public record of the internet.
When asked by The Drum, a Conservative Party spokesman refused to deny the reports, and confirmed that changes had been made.
“We’re making sure our website keeps the Conservative Party at the forefront of political campaigning,” the spokesman said. “These changes allow people to quickly and easily access the most important information we provide – how we are clearing up Labour’s economic mess, taking the difficult decisions and standing up for hardworking people.”
According to Computer Weekly, the changes occurred sometime after 5 October and the publication claims that a robot blocker was put up by the Conservatives to instruct archive services and search engines that records of the material should no longer be listed.