A collection of accounts with "unusual behaviour" were promoting Reform UK.
A number of TikTok accounts have been detected as promoting the British right-wing political party.
Cybersecurity experts at Cardiff University noticed a collection of accounts with "unusual behaviour", in particular featuring other political leaders with the phrases 'Vote Reform' or 'Reform UK' being posted on repeat.
Analysis was conducted on 14 different videos posted to the ITV News and ITV Politics TikTok accounts around a one-hour ITV debate last week, with four percent of all comments across these videos featuring the Reform-supporting comments.
In total there were 7,766 comments across all 14 videos, from this 45 different accounts were identified as repeatedly promoting Reform UK through their comments, to drum up support for the party.
There's no evidence to suggest Reform UK have had any involvement establishing the accounts, though all are clearly “Reform-supporting”, according to
analysis by ITV News and the Cardiff University researchers.
Written by
Dan Raywood
Senior Editor
SC Media UK
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with more than 20 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 16 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Conference, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and ESET Security Days.
Outside work, Dan enjoys supporting Tottenham Hotspur, managing mischievous cats, and sampling craft beers.
