Facebook v Flintoff: is this the next stage in the suppression of the Left?
Social media giant Facebook has suspended a page belonging to a left-wing politics show – is this the next stage in the suppression of the Left?
The Crispin Flintoff Show’s Facebook page was hit with unexplained restrictions by the platform on Friday – and has now been suspended with the threat of permanent deletion, for failing to follow “community standards on account integrity” – whatever that means.
Meanwhile, Mr Flintoff’s own page and the show’s pages have been attacked by hackers and he says he can’t be sure he’s still running any of them.
And someone has set up a fake Facebook page in his name, that has been confusing his followers.
This appears to be a concerted attack on a popular left-wing political show and its presenter.
I’m not sure that anybody to do with Facebook has been directly involved, but it certainly seems that somebody has manipulated its systems in order to deny the Flintoff Show its audience.
It is possible (although I think unlikely) that the restrictions and suspension are to do with something that was put on the pages after they were hacked.
Alternatively, the hacker (or whoever else was involved in this attack) found elements on the page that they could twist into fitting a narrative that makes it seem abusive of the “community standards” in some way.
The intention is clearly to bring the Flintoff Show and its Facebook page(s) into disrepute – and possibly to give Facebook an excuse to attack other pages linked to left-wing sites or organisations.
As Skwawkbox states, Facebook is known to be heavily restricting the reach of pages like its own, that of the Flintoff Show, and others (I would certainly include Vox Political‘s page among them). It would not surprise me to see the social media site enthusiastically jumping onto this bandwagon.
But doesn’t this contradict Facebook’s reason for existence?
It has always been a site about self-promotion – starting off with Harvard College students but progressing very quickly to businesses. I see from the site’s entry on Wikipedia that 100,000 businesses were promoting themselves on Facebook by late 2007.
This attack on The Crispin Flintoff Show is an attack on a legitimate business but Facebook is either supporting it or a direct part of it.
What message are we to take from this, other than that Facebook is now being used as a tool to prevent small and start-up businesses from having any success?
And are we now meant to accept that the only people who will be allowed to succeed in our “free” western society are those who are already rich and successful?
Source: Flintoff show Facebook page suspended – without explanation – and attacked by hackers – SKWAWKBOX
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well Corbyn was made out by establishment to be the exact opposite of whot he is now the rich are in control and only let us hear or see what they allow us to
From the producers of ‘The Smearing of Jeremy Corbyn’ comes a seasonal favourite, the quashing of dissent and free speech in the party..
has Facebook been targeting Aljazeera as well….When Israel and Israel’s war crimes ,crimes againsf huvanity, and genocide of the Palestinians are mentioned, the ‘buffering’ starts….