It seems to concern us little, but Facebook has taken an important step in
past days: total block of the official page of David Icke, known
British journalist and writer, always conspiracy theorist and "misinformer"
(source:
BBC). The question is thorny: where does freedom of speech end and where
does a legitimate, or presumed, intervention begin to block those who misinform?
A very open topic, but we feel we can support interventions of this type,
when to spread false news is a public figure capable of
to influence many people. And David Icke, a buffalo, really shot it
many. But let's see first how it got to the page block.
In the UK there is a control group against hatred spread digitally,
called Center for Countering Digital Hto you (CCDH).
In an open letter, the institution invited Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
to close the accounts of David Icke, active in the round in spreading fear,
alarmism, false news and whoever has the most. Not only that, in the letter
there is also talk of racism and disinformation, not wrongly.
David Icke, to cite only a few of his claims in random order,
believes that there is a Jewish group behind the spread of COVID-19, that the
5G leads people to absorb less oxygen (as well as a direct link with
virus …), that COVID-19 cannot be transmitted with a handshake,
that Germany is in the process of approving a law legalizing rape
by men of Muslim faith (!?!) and other similar amenities.
In short, one who goes down heavy without any shame, which a
compared some of our most uninhibited Italian journalists seem
lambs. Facebook has always been hesitant to block profiles that
incite racial hatred, while it is much more cautious (unfortunately) about
generic disinformation. Easy therefore that the motivation given to the owner
the profile was precisely that relating to hatred, but also to the danger that words can have for the health of citizens. The fact remains that a
step has been taken, many others are still to be done, but better than nothing.