18 May (Part 2) - Profile abandoned. Group abandoned?
I
have often said that I do not like Facebook and I am certainly not an expert in its workings.
For the election I joined the London Borough of Bexley News and Views FB grpup and was
intrigued by the enormous number of pro-Labour posts
from someone calling himself Ben Hopton. The name was not new too me, it had first
appeared here a year ago when it was
revealed that his banner image had been taken from a travel brochure and by
extension the Profile picture might be fake too.
Then at the end of last week three things happened at the same time. I received
a ‘Cease and Desist’ from an unelected Labour party candidate, London Borough of
Bexley News and Views dropped off my list of Joined groups and I thought
(probably wrongly) that I had been blocked from the Group.
And a reader who could still access the Group said that Ben had removed his
Profile picture, see associated image.
Yesterday I thought I would try to find out what was happening on London Borough of
Bexley News and Views. A FB search now only comes up with ‘Bexley
Borough News and Views’ with a different banner image and a message about the searched for Group not being available.
There is no sign of Ben Hopton any more.
Should I believe that on the very day that I receive demands from Labour
which refer directly to Ben Hopton, that he disappears? There are loads of
Google hits for his name but they all link to ‘This content isn’t available’.
The group ‘Bexley Borough News & Views’ is unlikely to be new as it boasts 7,600 members.
I don’t think it is a rebranding. Ben Hopton appears to have gone and taken his group with him.
Incidentally. Labour sources are insistent that Ben was nothing whatsoever to do with
them which is something else which takes a lot of believing.
All one can conclude is that there is a lot of dishonesty within local politics.
If anyone more knowledgeable about Facebook can comment it would be appreciated.