London: BBC has asked the Conservative Party to remove a Facebook advertisement that uses edited footage of its news reporters and presenters saying sentences like "Pointless delay to Brexit" and "another Brexit delay".
The 15-second video showing political editor Laura Kuenssberg, News at Ten presenter Huw Edwards and political correspondent Jonathan Blake has so far been seen by more than 100,000 users, the BBC reported on Thursday. The Conservative Party replied, saying the video had "not been edited in a manner that misleads or changes the reporting".
"We're aware of Conservative Party Facebook adverts using edited BBC content. This is a completely unacceptable use of BBC content which distorts our output and which could damage perceptions of our impartiality," the news organization said in a statement. Earlier, micro-blogging platform Twitter warned Conservative Party that it will take "decisive corrective action" against it if it continues to mislead public after it renamed its Twitter handle as a fact-checking organization during a key political debate.