An appreciative email came from Ms. R. who is another reader who wants to see
Bonkers continue. She says she does not agree with my political leanings but
remains “a devoted reader” and Bonkers is “invaluable”. Thanks R. It is good to
look at both sides of an argument and not live in an echo chamber.
Not every one is so open minded. My site host’s abuse team has received a
complaint about my coverage of the Go Ape situation. A ream of legal
gobbledygook - is that another G word of which they disapprove? - accused me of stealing private information from
the private Facebook Group from which they banned me.
How did I manage to do that? Did it ever occur to them that it may have been
sent to me by one of their Committee Members less keen on censorship than some are?
Description of Unlawful Material:
The website owner has published an unauthorized screenshot taken directly from
our private, closed Facebook forum. This screenshot publicly exposes the private
interactions, text, and potentially identifiable data of a private citizen and
also states the member of the public over several blogs, who has a clear
expectation of privacy under UK law.
This of course is not strictly accurate. There were no interactions, just the
one. The name of the Group Administrator never appeared as searchable text
against the ‘stolen’ screenshot, to protect it from Google etc. It was subsequently blurred from the image. Maybe I
should create a facsimile to totally avoid the accusations of theft?
“States the member of the public over several blogs” is not entirely true
either. One of Go Ape’s leaders was mentioned once. Why would the leader of
a local protest group wish to hide their name? If you put yourself forward as a public figure addressing
public meetings etc., anonymity is a difficult concept.
There was no complaint about my opinion of Facebook Administrators in general
and I still think that if people like the Go Ape Administrator is so ashamed
of posted comment it should not have been posted in the first place.
Maybe
I should give some publicity to what one of the Go Ape supporters said about its leadership a few days ago.
Not every supporter will agree with the complaining Go Ape leadership so
their antics can only be counter-productive.
Now we have to wait to see if the site hosts’ lawyers think Bonkers is too
much of a liability to continue.
Meanwhile I think it is time for a Go Ape Index.
If real news about Go Ape and Danson Park comes to light it will be
faithfully reported here, assuming ‘here’ still exists.