The French far right may be tiny on the institutional stage – the National Front (FN) has only two MPs – but on online platforms it is a giant.
Often collectively called the “fachosphère” (from “fascist”), websites denouncing mass immigration and Islam have seen spectacular growth in France over the past 10 years.
The most popular among them dwarf the sites of the current presidential candidates in terms of page views.
Many see the fachosphère as a threat to democracy. One commentator has called it “chilling” and another a “weapon of mass indoctrination”.
The BBC has long made it its business to warn us of the rise of the political Right, not being shy with the allusions to Nazis, concentration camps and ethnic cleansing, happily associating even the somewhat benign and middleclass UKIP as fascist and the anti-Islam extremism EDL as Far-Right extremists. But the BBC doesn’t limit itself to scaremongering about the Boys from Brazil, it also tackles the supposed right-wing inspired tidal wave of racist abuse and hate that spread across the UK #duetobrexit that turned Britain into a nastier and more racist place…or so the BBC keeps telling us….just as well we had a referendum…now we know where all the fascists who voted for Leave are…and they can be dealt with when the EU is back in charge. Then of course there is the social media, the BBC also makes it its job to police that, not just for hate crimes but for any sign of what it deems fake news…the BBC itself deciding what is fake or not..no mirrors at the BBC.
So a fairly comprehensive attempt by the BBC to dominate the news and information and to police our thoughts and to shape them so that we only think approved thoughts and should we happen to be exposed to any toxic, mind-polluting right-wing fake news or hate we will recognise it for what it is and get straight onto Twitter to alert the keyboard warriors so that it can be dealt with and suppressed.
Strangely it is only right-wing news and social media sites that attract the BBC’s critical attention, left-wing sites seem to be either left alone or indeed actually promoted by the BBC. Very few times will you see the BBC say anything negative about a left-wing site.
Look how it promoted the hard-left fake news site Skwawkbox giving it a prominence without qualifying that with a health warning about its content… and The Canary…a Corbyn supporting online site that sprang up recently only for the BBC to start hyping it and giving it plenty of exposure and promotion [even had it on Question Time]…curiously introducing it as a counter to the right-wing redtops….like the Mirror? Why is the BBC celebrating a supposed counter to the Right-wing press? Not sure why the BBC insists the Right have a dominance in the Press when there’s the Guardian, the Independent, the Newstatesman, the Economist, the Financial Times, the Mirror, the Times itself all too often [a big supporter of Remain] and the BBC itself as the biggest, massively dominant news provider of all of them…especially as the papers are losing readers and influence.
Then we have Left-wing violence, intimidation, abuse and hate…..heard about that? Not so likely if you use the BBC to get your news. Sure they have started to cover it…but only after a huge fuss was made in the papers and by MPs themselves. The BBC exaggerates racist abuse and falsely atributes it to Brexit but practically ignores the massive and orchestrated violence and harassment that is coming from the left…and all too often from Corbyn’s supporters…where is the BBC analysis telling us that Corbyn has given them ‘licence’ to act in this way? The same goes for anti-Semitism…the BBC was very reluctant to expose the rise of that old nasty in the Labour Party.
Just why is the BBC so unwilling to make the same effort to counter genuine violence, hate, abuse and fake news from the Left as it puts into attacking anyone on the Right whom it decides is guilty of such behaviour?
We hear that one of the BBC’s own, Laura Kuenssberg had to have a bodyguard after receiving so much abuse and threats from Left-wingers…hear about that from the BBC? No. And still they look the other way when the Left run riot.
Charles Moore in the Spectator notes that the BBC would hound the Right if it had been Tory abuse of Kuenssberg…
However, the bit the Tories haven’t said in public but keep complaining about in private is that the BBC never reported that Kuenssberg was so badly threatened online by Corbyn supporters that she was given personal protection. They feel that this subdued her capacity to cover the contest clearly. They suspect that if Theresa May had possessed fans as thuggish as Mr Corbyn’s, the BBC would have made a meal of it. I do not know the details of this story, and the BBC won’t comment on security questions, but I have had it informally confirmed from within the BBC.
Yesterday I heard a discussion on R4 about how Facebook may have won it [lol] for Corbyn…not a mention of the vast, vast amounts of fake news, much of it highly abusive and slanderous, that came out of these left-wing sites…which is a shame as the BBC concluded that perhaps these sites are the future of ‘news’ and the biggest influence on election results.
The Mail points out the BBC’s tardiness in mentioning the torrent of abuse and vicious attacks coming from the Left…
For weeks, this paper has documented vicious attacks and smears – including death threats, vandalism and anti-Semitic abuse – directed by Corbynites agaisnt Tories and Labour moderates alike.
Yet before Mrs May announced an inquiry, the BBC barely mentioned this terifying development in olitics – just as during the election it drew a veil over the Labour leadership’s link to terrorist groups.
Indeed, the Corporation kept virtually silent until Labour’s chairman, in a clear attempt to divert attention, accused Right-wingers of abusing candidates online. Then suddenly the story was leading its news. [Yep…noticed that]
Truly, the BBC has never been more partisan. Be sure of this: if its relentless bias helps Mr Corbyn’s thugs triumph against freedom and democracy, their first move will be seizing control of the airwaves [lol…vote Corbyn!!!]
The Mail is spot on….what is happening is an attempt to smash demcoracy and replace it with threats, intimidation and bullying…so Zimbabwean, so SNP.
The BBC supports terrorists, rioters, Left-wing ‘Brownshirt’ street thugs and of course the corrupt tyranny of the undemocratic EU.
The BBC truly is the’enemy of the people’.
Speaking of which…funny how all those who hate the Grenfell inquiry chairman, Mr Martin Moore-Bick, because he is white or not a criminal lawyer get the BBC’s sympathy and support but anyone who criticised the judges ruling on Article 50 was an enemy of Justice dangerously undermining respect for the Law.