In what I’m sure will be a terrible shock to everyone it has been found that people use a method of communication to communicate with each other. Telephones have been used to set lovers’ assignations, plot the downfall of dictators and to ask what’s on for dinner. Back when the letter post actually worked much the same was true. Before any mechanical aids people just talked to each other about the same things.
Now the same is true of Facebook:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Albanian crime gangs using Facebook to counter immigration raids and smuggle illegal immigrants into Britain[/perfectpullquote]Given that they’re not actually sliding those illegal immigrants down the intertubes they must therefore simply be using Facebook to communicate. And that’s all they are doing too.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Facebook has failed to take any action against the site, called Albanians in London, which has 123,000 followers, and where the criminal schemes are publicly posted. Its page has been run by convicted Albanian bank robber Fari Lleshi who illegally entered the UK after completing a six-year jail term for a £20,000 heist in Italy. He was deported in March after being convicted of drug dealing in Britain. [/perfectpullquote]Mr. Lleshi is still allowed to talk to people. He’s entirely at liberty to post letters, he’s even welcome to make phone calls. There simply is no reason why anyone should stop him using Facebook.
For one thing we’ve found out down the ages is that if we start to try controlling who may say what over our current methods of communication then we end up in a very bad place. The Stasi system of monitoring all has only a few groupies these days. Which is the reason no one has nor should close down that Facebook group. Because we’re not living in a police state.
Quite apart from the basic practicalities of course. If someone’s doing all this organising in public – even a supposedly private group with 123,000 followers isn’t private – then it’s pretty easy to monitor what he’s doing, isn’t it?
Yes. We’re flirting with real danger here, if people with nasty thoughts aren’t free to post them somewhere online. Any form of censorship will always be used in ways beyond its alleged purpose. And nasty people don’t go away if they’re driven underground.