Facebook fact-checker finds UK Conservatives ran ads with altered BBC headline

One of Facebook’s third-party fact-checkers accused Britain’s governing Conservative Party on Friday of misrepresenting a BBC News article in its ads on the social media platform.

UK fact-checking charity Full Fact found that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s party has been funding ads on Facebook that link to a BBC article with an apparently altered headline that reads “GBP 14 billion pound cash boost for schools.”

The actual BBC story is headlined “School spending: Multi-billion pound cash boost announced,” and instead puts the number at GBP 7.1 billion, criticizing the government’s use of GBP 14 billion figure as not the usual way of calculating spending.