Brexit astroturfing: did fake grassroots groups help swing the EU referendum?

Campaigns like "Vapers For Britain" might have been inside the letter of the law, but did they breach its spirit?

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Bangla for Britain; Historians for Britain; even Vapers for Britain, with its snappy tagline: “it’s time to quit… the EU”. At first glance, the Twitter and Facebook feeds belonging to these hyper-specific campaigns appear to be independent, grassroots affairs.

In fact, they’re among a dozen “outreach groups” backed by the Vote Leave campaign, which was this week found to have overspent and cheated during its campaign by the Electoral Commission.