Anonymous
In respect to TUS posters commentating on Facebook removing this article as they, Facebook, ( Hi Nick Clegg) deemed it spam is somewhat ironic.
As the scandal in the 2010’s where “personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica which was determined was predominantly to be used for Political purposes” . (but back then this practise was not classified as ‘Spam’ by Facebook).
The data was collected through an app called “This Is Your Digital Life” the app consisted of a series of questions to build psychological profiles on users, and collected the personal data of the users’ Facebook friends via Facebook’s Open Graph platform. (But not once again, back then , did Facebook, determine this as “Spam” or indeed something that needed censored by them ,Facebook , eh that would be a NO).
The app harvested the data of up to 87 million Facebook profiles.
It was reported that Cambridge Analytica used the data to analytically assist the 2016 presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz & Donald Trump and Cambridge Analytica were also accused of interfering with the Brexit referendum.
Facebook apologized for their role in the data harvesting but they did not stop it in it’s tracks , like say Facebook stopping the above TUS posters in warning them that what they were reposting/sharing on their Facebook pages re the BBC propaganda article was being categorised , by Facebook, as being within the category of ‘Spam’ and also with accusations of them, as users of Facebook, “breaching community standards”.
The UK journalist Carole Cadwalladr highlighted Facebook’s role in Brexit in 2016 pre the EU Referendum and in 2019 Nick Clegg denied that “misuse of Facebook influenced the Brexit vote” (Well he would say that as one, who was now an employee of Facebook, and also he was a former Lib Dem politician so lying comes easy to them, think #Frenchgate Alistair Carmichael and also Nick Clegg himself promising ,pre the 2010 GE , in him saying that there would be ‘No increase in Tuition fees’ but then the 2010 coalition between the Lib Dems and the Tory party saw that Tuition fees did indeed increase).
However in 2018 it was reported that “The official Vote Leave campaign spent more than £2.7m on targeting ads at specific groups of people on Facebook – helping it to win the 2016 EU referendum“
“The ads, created by Canadian company Aggregate AIQ, often focused on specific issues – such as immigration or animal rights – thought likely to push the buttons of certain groups of people, based on their age, where they lived and other personal data taken from social media and other sources”
Then we had the recent GE where political parties used Facebook for political purposes.
One of the (many) Facebook ad’s run by the Labour party in the recent GE started running from June 28 and it said that “the party’s energy plans will save £300 off your bills” there was also ads from other political parties on Facebook pre the recent 2024 GE .
However it seemed that as political ads none ” breached their (Facebook) community standards” and how many people on Facebook shared ads and information via political parties to try to convert people to support that particular party and also were sharing negative information on their Facebook pages that was attacking another political party ,which according to Facebook is a clear breach, as it would be seen (surely) by Facebook as them, as Facebook users ” trying to get likes, shares or video views in a misleading way” ?
Why even the 2014 Scottish independence Referendum had ads on people’s Facebook pages. that were trying to influence the opinions of voters being targeted to try and sway their decisions pre the date of the vote .
I am not on Facebook but I do wonder if there was the sharing of and reposting of some articles or ads that targeted the SNP in a negative light and as such were not removed by Facebook as “Breaches” or classified by them as “Spam”?
More and more we see some parts of social media being very selective on who and what they support, allow as information to be placed , without censorship, on their platforms etc and then who and what they will not allow to promote alternate information on their platforms as they, Facebook, define it as “Spam” or a “breach of their guidelines”.
Once more Scotland and it achieving independence is considered as taboo , as is any sharing of articles it seems that exposes those , within the British establishment, who oppose it, Scottish independence, happening .
Like say employees of the BBC calling a newspaper in Scotland no more than a pro independence propaganda paper (while, for years, the BBC has been ignoring those other ‘newspapers’ who clearly support the sustaining of the UK and so have always promoted Pro UK propaganda constantly in Scotland within their ‘newspapers’ as does the BBC themselves).
Remember in 2019 it was reported “Facebook came under fire over their:
“Outrageous’ UK tax bill where Facebook’s UK arm paid £28.5m in tax in 2018 as revenues hit a record £1.65bn on the back of strong advertising growth“.
Has that now changed post 2018/2019 .
I doubt it, as money , especially in the UK, most definitely talks.
Talking-up Scotland 
Just posted this on FB – allowed!
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Hi Guys …. Just posted the full story to my Facebook pro SNP/Indy Page with this post added … So far it’s still “up”
“Propaganda”, Censorship & Conspiracy Theories … to quote Shakespeare … “Much Ado About Nothing”
[ Apologies for long read, but hopefully worth reading ]
Those that know me well know that I’m not one for “Conspiracy Theories”
I like to stand back from a particular subject, especially in the murky World of Politics and the Media and take a rational course – until I’m proved different.
So here is a sequence of strange events that started on Friday 23th August ….
I don’t often post articles from The National as I know most of you will read online or buy our only pro-Indy newspaper anyway.
However, the headlines “BBC Scotland editor brands The National ‘propaganda’ multiple times” was too good to resist as here we had a clear cut case of BBC bias where during a broadcast of BBC Radio 4’s Media Show with Ros Atkins on Wednesday, BBC Scotland’s business and economy editor Douglas Fraser called The National “Propaganda”.
The irony was rife considering the BBC’s own bias when it comes to broadcasting Scottish politics which we all know too well. Also that it seemed to escape Mr Fraser’s attention that WE might consider every other newspaper in the Dis-UK “propaganda” or at the very least biased against the Scottish Independence movement including The National’s own sister paper The Herald ….
Anyway, you’ll find the story on here in full as I posted it on Friday without the paywall.
Saturday 24th August (Morning) ….
On the same subject on Saturday, master blogger Paul Kavanagh, The Wee Ginger Dug wrote up on the same subject…..
“BBC Scotland’s definition of propaganda”
Finishing with the conclusion …
“………… This makes BBC Scotland the biggest and most distorting producer of propaganda in Scotland, but Douglas Fraser and his bosses at Pacific Quay are the very last people who will ever acknowledge that because BBC Scotland’s usefulness to the British state as a propaganda tool to be used in Westminster’s political battle against Scottish independence ceases the second that BBC Scotland’s news editors admit the truth about what they are really doing – lying by omission, distorting, and giving free passes to Labour and Conservative politicians while the SNP is subjected to constant and unremitting hostile scrutiny.”
Now you can’t get more harder hitting than that!
Saturday 24th August (Evening) …
Late evening and up popped a “Talking Up Scotland” post into my “in tray”
“Uttering such a blatant “propaganda” statement actually oozes with British Nationalist “propaganda”
It was from the excellent new blogger “Anonymous” who guest blogs under Prof. John Robertson’s title….
This was Anonymous’ own take on the same story, but arriving at much the same conclusion as The Wee Ginger Dug and certainly worth posting to here and certainly the title itself was nothing worse than, the WGD’s.
So with the usual way in which I post, I took the first paragraph of the blog as a “taster” and posted it to here …
Now this is where the story takes a new twist …
The post was only up less than two minutes when suddenly up flashed a message from Facebook saying they had taken down the post and marked it “SPAM”!
I was both flabbergasted and angry at this absurd censorship.
There is no way any Facebook adjudicator had had time to read this post and it seemed purely a random and arbitrary decision by someone trying to justify there job.
Not only was it definitely not spam it also most definitely did not break “Facebook Rules”
We do pride ourselves on here that we endeavour not to break “Facebook Rules”
We have to recognise that we play in their playground hence we are careful to only post verified stories and articles … In this case The National was first to publish the story.
I immediately “Appealed” their adjudication (still pending) pointing out much the same.
After all, this was a story in the Public Domain and did most definitely happen.
In addition to this I wrote a comment back to TUS as follows:
“Prof. John & “Anonymous” …. I posted this blog to my large pro-SNP/Indy site on Facebook.
Within just a couple of minutes the Facebook Police removed it as “spam”
This was quite a ridiculous decision and I’ve rightly appealed there adjudication as it “doesn’t break the rules”.
The absurdity of this sort of censorship is born out by the fact this is the fourth such post about this subject I’ve posted including from The National itself and The Wee Ginger Dug who blogged on the same subject today”
Sunday 25th August (Evening) …
Now the plot thickens…
As said, I thought the marking of the blog as spam was purely an arbitrary decision taken by someone at Facebook who simply doesn’t understand either British or Scottish politics.
But on checking back on my “comment” to Talking Up Scotland I found that the censorship of the blog had become the main topic of conversation.
No less than 6 other people reported back that Facebook had taken down the blog which they had posted including Anonymous trying themselves!
So my assumption was wrong … this is very definitely censorship … and very daft censorship of a story that has been in the public domain since Friday.
So who is behind this?
Someone has very certainly ordered this story to be suppressed.
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“No less than 6 other people reported back that Facebook had taken down the blog which they had posted including Anonymous trying themselves”
I hadn’t actually tried to post it onto Facebook myself as I do not have a Facebook account . However I did note both your and other people’s comments that you had all tried to add the BBC article onto Facebook , but they, Facebook, took it down, as the article was defined by them as “Spam” or “breaching their rules ” or whatever they categorised it as.
It does tend to make one think someone at Facebook is sporadically , for whatever reason, censoring specific topics, whether that be because of their source or because of the topic or/and content.
Like you I am also not a conspiracy theorist but nowadays fact is indeed stranger than fiction so I am open to all theories especially with so many , who have power & influence both within and outwith the UK , being apparently so against Scottish independence for reasons that I am sure are largely based upon their own personal (financial) reasons or own business reasons (also financial).
As I said “Money talks” and with money comes power and influence to both promote information and suppress it also and the same rule would also apply to opinions that exposes double standards, hypocrisy etc ( Like calling out a BBC Employee for example).
Great comment by you BTW.
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l would also blame Britnat trolls who would report anything pro Scotland and anyrhing anti British as offensive to their bleeding eyes.
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It was rejected when I posted it, John
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