You might have heard that the United Kingdom held a referendum last week to decide whether or not it wants to stay in the European Union. This exercise was commonly known as “Brexit,” and the referendum was won by those want to leave the EU. The decision has sent shockwaves throughout the global financial system and while there are many aspects of the exit that still need to be negotiated, online petitions have been started to force a second referendum. The most popular second Brexit referendum petition has gained millions of signatures but not all of them are from humans.
The British Parliament considers all petitions that have amassed over 100,000 signatures for debate and this second Brexit referendum petition has gained over 3.7 million signatures to date.
Not all of these signatures are from humans. Automated bots have been created by 4chan message board users who are rapidly adding signatures to the petition even from IP addresses located in North Korea and Antarctica.
A statement has been issued by the Parliament’s House of Commons Petitions Committee. Committee Chair Helen Jones MP has said that they’re looking into the fraudulent signatures and that they will be removed from the petition so that the honest count can be visible.
The committee is going to consider the petition this week to decide whether or not it should be debated on in the Parliament.