Poor old Mark Zuckerberg

You have to have some sympathy for the founder of Facebook. He is being asked to take on a most difficult job – being a world censor.  

And, he has righty turned it down. Sure, some Facebook advertising by political groups is, to my eyes, appalling riddled with lies and nasty mistruths.

But that’s politics. Right now in the UK we have a general election where all parties are in a bidding war to see who can spend the most. They are like poker players at the high-rollers table in Las Vegas. 

‘I’ll see your National Health Service and I’ll raise you a new railway.’

‘Ok, I’ll see that and raise you free Broadband for everyone.’

‘And we’ll plant 30 million trees.’

And so it goes on and the cash (yours and mine) piles up on the table. 

Are all of these election promises true? I don’t know, nor does anyone, not least poor old Mark. But I do know that election promises are seldom worth the air expended on them.

So should Facebook step in and become an arbiter of what is acceptable? The issue was highlighted by Hilary Clinton when she said that Facebook refused to take down a ‘demonstrably false’ advertisement about former Vice-President, Joe Biden.

The problem is the word ‘demonstrably’. Like all adjectives and adverbs, its meaning is open to interpretation. Who will decide what is ‘demonstrably false’ and what is not?

Not Mark. He knows a crisis when he sees one coming.

Have a good week.

Tom