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Twitter launches new 'hashflags' for political parties to brighten up election coverage

Party supporters now have another way to identify each other

Jon Stone
Friday 10 April 2015 13:20 BST
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(Getty)

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Twitter has launched a new round of 'hashflags' to brighten up general election coverge on the social network.

Users who post hastags representing one of the ten biggest parties will see a small emoji-like icon automatically appended to the end of the text of the tag.

The social network announced the new feature in a tweet this morning.

The Liberal Democrats reacted immediately to the announcement
The Liberal Democrats reacted immediately to the announcement

The parties covered by the move are #conservative #labour #libdems #ukip #greens #snp #plaid15 #dup #sdlp and #respectparty

Sinn Fein, the second largest party in Northern Ireland with 5 MPs, does not have a hashflag. The far-right British National Party was also notable by its absence.

A spokesperson for Twitter said that the company had asked all parties with MPs in the last Parliament to participate in the hashflags and that those had given permission to use their logo were listed.

The hashflags do not currently show up in Tweetdeck, which is used by many journalists.

Other topics to previously get the hashflag treatment include the World Cup and Ramadan.

Twitter has also compiled a guide to help journalists and politicians or campaigners during the election.


The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as is possible.

Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed:

All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report)

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