CENSORSHIP

I’ve just learnt that my piece on Brexit last week was censored by Facebook. Specifically it was banned in Britain on the grounds I was promoting political content into a country in which I’m not based.

Putting aside the fact that I own a home in Britain and would pay a thousand-fold more taxes and rates than the average Brit, the censorship was silly.

If you haven’t worked it out already, it’s stems from the organised Russian Facebook blitz of political messages in the last American Presidential campaign. At all times that was a grossly over-hyped issue by the Democrats.

The Russians Facebook messages could have been sent from anywhere. They’re free to do so next election by the simple process of going to America.

That said, the new world order of open to all, instant electronic global communications does raise numerous issues of concern, typical of most dramatic new societal changes. History says we’ll work out answers, as we always have done.

One consequence which should be obvious is, learning from the last election and Trump’s shock win, future elections, not just in America but everywhere, will see Facebook users driven mad by a flood of messages.

If I was a politician, I’d deal with that by the now abandoned, material in the letterbox method. It’s novelty would gain it the most attention.