Yesterday the Observer published a page 50 correction conceding that Carole Cadwalladr’s central charge linking Vote Leave, Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ is untrue. And it gets worse… 

The paper yesterday also ran a new article about AIQ’s work for Michael Gove’s leadership campaign. Gove told them that AIQ set up his campaign website, but Carole’s award-winning investigative work found that the site “never went live” and “failed to secure the domain”.

“When asked about the work AIQ did for Gove, a spokesman said: “The Gove 2016 campaign paid AIQ £2,720.46 in July to set up its website. The payment was authorised by the campaign manager and paid for from funds donated to the campaign. All campaign spending was fully declared to CCHQ as required under Conservative party leadership election rules.”

AIQ did not respond to inquiries about its work on the Gove 2016… Gove 2016 never went live – according to reports, the campaign failed to secure the domain”

This is just wrong. The domain was secured, the website did go live. An archived version is available here:

This could have been determined by the most basic of web archive searches, but Cadwalladr didn’t bother and the Observer has published another untruth as a result. And the conspiratorial insinuation that some Brexiteer trickery was involved once again falls apart. Will next Sunday’s Observer have to publish its second Cadwalladr correction in two weeks?

UPDATE: Carole confirms her story yesterday was wrong. She’s now admitted her reports have contained fundamental errors two weeks in a row…

Yes Alex. Well spotted. @upguard made an error in their report which they spotted last night & relayed to us. Thanks for your ongoing attention to our story pic.twitter.com/XLqOxROxpq

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) April 2, 2018