The Labour Party has hired Zack Exley, the controversial cyberactivist from liberal American website MoveOn.org, according to Silicon. As of now, there is little known about what exactly Exley will be doing for Labour.
Exley originally made a name for himself through “cybersquatting” – the practice of buying up an internet domain in the name of a party or politician and using it to help the opposing side. He purchased the domain name gwbush.com in the late 1990s for $70, and he used the site to post doctored photos of George W. Bush snorting cocaine and drinking. Exley avoided legal penalties because he was a registered Independent at the time and was not employed by any of the political parties.
He then went on to join MoveOn, a major player in the 2000 presidential election which engaged in grassroots campaigning and claimed to have built an online community of some 2 million political activists. MoveOn created an uproar when it posted a video comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry went on to hire Exley as his Director of Internet Campaigns.
The Conservative Party claims that several websites with party leader Michael Howard’s name have already been registered by the Labour Party. Labour is not alone in its cybersquatting, however. The Lib Dems have come under fire for registering plaid-cymru.co.uk, and the Conservatives themselves own both tonyblairmp.com and tonyblairmp.net. In an election where honesty and trustworthiness are shaping up to be key issues for voters, online trickery is probably not the best way to win people over.