The Daily Telegraph newspaper has been fines £30,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after it sent hundreds of thousands of emails on the day of the general election urging readers to vote Conservative. The editor’s message asking hundreds of thousands of readers to oppose the most ‘leftwing Labour leader for a generation’ crossed a line, says watchdog. RT reports: Hours before Brits went to the polls, the right-wing newspaper’s editor Chris Evans sent an email to thousands of subscribers that read: “The Daily Telegraph urges its readers to vote Conservative.” “Do we continue under the Conservatives with the open, enterprise-led economic approach that has underpinned our prosperity for nearly 40 years? Or do we revert to an old-style, ‘government-knows-best’ culture championed by the most left-wing Labour leader for a generation?” it added. None of the paper’s readers gave consent to receiving this kind of marketing, yet the message was sent nonetheless. ‘Crossed the line’ The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found the Telegraph Media Group had breached rules in consent in the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. In a 16-page ruling, the ICO found the breach to be deliberate but said it had never happened before. It [...]
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