Here’s a video clip of Crispin Flintoff and Steve Walker on the social media attack on business.
It’s the segment of The Crispin Flintoff Show in which I was supposed to be a participant, but I had to back out at the last moment and instead I spent the interview’s allotted time shivering, sneezing and coughing under a small mountain of blankets and duvets.
I apologised profusely to Crispin and offered him my notes for the interview, which would have taken it in a different direction, but he didn’t reply. After watching the clip, I think I can understand his reasons:
Crispin starts by recounting his troubles with Facebook – the fact that the platform has prevented him from inviting viewers to his shows for no identifiable reason; the fact that his Facebook account was then hacked, and the email and phone number changed – and he could not even raise the matter with Facebook because the platform provides no contact details.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This is interesting because the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 explicitly state that “businesses providing services in the UK must provide contact details for rapid and direct communication, such as email or phone. They must also provide contact details for making complaints and information requests.”
So Facebook has been breaking the law. It seems the organisation used to provide contact information but has removed it in recent years, so not only is it breaking the law but it has apparently made a conscious decision to do so. It seems this is also true for the other big social media platforms like YouTube and X.
Crispin goes on to explain that somebody had then extracted money from three bank accounts at random times overnight – not to buy anything; the cash went only as far as Facebook. He concluded that it was an attempt to demoralise him because he had to stay awake until around 3am in order to track the fraudulent transactions and report them to his bank(s).
This may explain why he has not replied to my emails, and if it is the reason then it is entirely understandable.
Crispin expressed his disappointment with the lack of service provided by Facebook – the platform did not help him in any way, even in dealing with dishonest activity there.
This is a breach of UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), to which Facebook must adhere if it wishes to operate in the UK.
These state that Facebook must honour the ‘Security Principle’ – that the organisation must process personal data securely by means of “appropriate technical and organisational measures”.
Measures must ensure the “confidentiality, integrity and availability” of a business’s systems and services and the personal data it processes within them.
They must also enable a firm to “restore access and availability to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident”.
And these are just the obvious breaches that I can see from a first scan of the regulations!
Meanwhile, despite having been cut off from the platform, Crispin’s Facebook page or pages is or are still there and may be used to bring Crispin and his show into disrepute, so he has called for people to be aware that any messages from Facebook purporting to be from him are from fraudsters.
But this is a time in which the mainstream media simply aren’t publishing the news that we need to hear; instead we get propaganda.
I mean, is it any of Elon Musk’s business how the UK deals with child sexual exploitation? He has no understanding of government policy on this and – much as I’ve had differences with her in the past, he certainly has no right to endanger Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips by spouting ignorant nonsense about it.
But the media have leapt on this story because it means they don’t have to cover the serious issues that are facing us.
For those, you have to go to the social media – sites like Steve’s Skwawkbox, Crispin’s show, This Site and others like them.
But you can’t because Facebook pushes us down to the bottom of your newsfeed or off it altogether and dishes you up the propaganda instead, whether you asked for it or not. Is that the Information Revolution you wanted?
Steve’s response was surprisingly upbeat: “If we weren’t troubling them, then they wouldn’t need to bother doing all this stuff.” By “them”, he means the nonsense propagandists who are filling your TV screens and newspapers with bilge and the social media platforms like Facebook and Musk’s X that support them.
He went on to state that the campaign against social media politics writers had taken a sinister turn, with Richard Medhurst being threatened with arrest if he does not divulge the passwords for the devices (computers etc) that he uses in the course of his work. This is, of course, illegal; as a journalist, he has a right to protect his sources from everybody including the state.
And he said organised lobby groups are in the habit of complaining to platforms like Facebook, in order to have them take down material that exposes the groups they support. Groups backing the genocidal Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu were mentioned.
He said Israel supporters had thought they could drain Skwawkbox of funds by making donations of a single penny via PayPal – but this was not true because if the transaction cost is more than the donation, then the donation is taken as the cost; all they did was give a few thousand pennies to PayPal.
I can confirm this tactic because they tried it on me, too.
He suggested the Online Harms Bill is an attempt to attack left-wing media, as is the arrest campaign against prominent left-wing writers – “but it shows that we’re still in the game”.
For me, the problem with that is, it means that UK law has been perverted by those in power – not just the current Labour government but the Tories before, specifically to attack sites like Vox Political and the others – to de-platform us, defund us, drive us out of business.
And at the moment, they’re doing a great job. How many other people do you think are being allowed to read this, besides you? And how do you feel, knowing that the entire UK Establishment is dedicated not just to silencing me, but to wiping me out – because they don’t like what I’m saying?
There must be some truth to it, eh?
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Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
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Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
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Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Crispin Flintoff and Steve Walker on the social media attack on business
Here’s a video clip of Crispin Flintoff and Steve Walker on the social media attack on business.
It’s the segment of The Crispin Flintoff Show in which I was supposed to be a participant, but I had to back out at the last moment and instead I spent the interview’s allotted time shivering, sneezing and coughing under a small mountain of blankets and duvets.
I apologised profusely to Crispin and offered him my notes for the interview, which would have taken it in a different direction, but he didn’t reply. After watching the clip, I think I can understand his reasons:
Crispin starts by recounting his troubles with Facebook – the fact that the platform has prevented him from inviting viewers to his shows for no identifiable reason; the fact that his Facebook account was then hacked, and the email and phone number changed – and he could not even raise the matter with Facebook because the platform provides no contact details.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This is interesting because the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 explicitly state that “businesses providing services in the UK must provide contact details for rapid and direct communication, such as email or phone. They must also provide contact details for making complaints and information requests.”
So Facebook has been breaking the law. It seems the organisation used to provide contact information but has removed it in recent years, so not only is it breaking the law but it has apparently made a conscious decision to do so. It seems this is also true for the other big social media platforms like YouTube and X.
Crispin goes on to explain that somebody had then extracted money from three bank accounts at random times overnight – not to buy anything; the cash went only as far as Facebook. He concluded that it was an attempt to demoralise him because he had to stay awake until around 3am in order to track the fraudulent transactions and report them to his bank(s).
This may explain why he has not replied to my emails, and if it is the reason then it is entirely understandable.
Crispin expressed his disappointment with the lack of service provided by Facebook – the platform did not help him in any way, even in dealing with dishonest activity there.
This is a breach of UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), to which Facebook must adhere if it wishes to operate in the UK.
These state that Facebook must honour the ‘Security Principle’ – that the organisation must process personal data securely by means of “appropriate technical and organisational measures”.
Measures must ensure the “confidentiality, integrity and availability” of a business’s systems and services and the personal data it processes within them.
They must also enable a firm to “restore access and availability to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident”.
And these are just the obvious breaches that I can see from a first scan of the regulations!
Meanwhile, despite having been cut off from the platform, Crispin’s Facebook page or pages is or are still there and may be used to bring Crispin and his show into disrepute, so he has called for people to be aware that any messages from Facebook purporting to be from him are from fraudsters.
But this is a time in which the mainstream media simply aren’t publishing the news that we need to hear; instead we get propaganda.
I mean, is it any of Elon Musk’s business how the UK deals with child sexual exploitation? He has no understanding of government policy on this and – much as I’ve had differences with her in the past, he certainly has no right to endanger Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips by spouting ignorant nonsense about it.
But the media have leapt on this story because it means they don’t have to cover the serious issues that are facing us.
For those, you have to go to the social media – sites like Steve’s Skwawkbox, Crispin’s show, This Site and others like them.
But you can’t because Facebook pushes us down to the bottom of your newsfeed or off it altogether and dishes you up the propaganda instead, whether you asked for it or not. Is that the Information Revolution you wanted?
Steve’s response was surprisingly upbeat: “If we weren’t troubling them, then they wouldn’t need to bother doing all this stuff.” By “them”, he means the nonsense propagandists who are filling your TV screens and newspapers with bilge and the social media platforms like Facebook and Musk’s X that support them.
He went on to state that the campaign against social media politics writers had taken a sinister turn, with Richard Medhurst being threatened with arrest if he does not divulge the passwords for the devices (computers etc) that he uses in the course of his work. This is, of course, illegal; as a journalist, he has a right to protect his sources from everybody including the state.
And he said organised lobby groups are in the habit of complaining to platforms like Facebook, in order to have them take down material that exposes the groups they support. Groups backing the genocidal Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu were mentioned.
He said Israel supporters had thought they could drain Skwawkbox of funds by making donations of a single penny via PayPal – but this was not true because if the transaction cost is more than the donation, then the donation is taken as the cost; all they did was give a few thousand pennies to PayPal.
I can confirm this tactic because they tried it on me, too.
He suggested the Online Harms Bill is an attempt to attack left-wing media, as is the arrest campaign against prominent left-wing writers – “but it shows that we’re still in the game”.
For me, the problem with that is, it means that UK law has been perverted by those in power – not just the current Labour government but the Tories before, specifically to attack sites like Vox Political and the others – to de-platform us, defund us, drive us out of business.
And at the moment, they’re doing a great job. How many other people do you think are being allowed to read this, besides you? And how do you feel, knowing that the entire UK Establishment is dedicated not just to silencing me, but to wiping me out – because they don’t like what I’m saying?
There must be some truth to it, eh?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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Three cheers for free speech!