Shooting the Facebook messenger.

Bearers of bad news have always had a bad rap and in some cases an unfortunate demise. The advent of the postal service and telecommunications were a godsend to messengers, giving them the opportunity of delivering bad news from a distance, thus allowing them some chance to get the hell out of Dodge before their despot could react. This really pissed off tyrants but it was impractical to shut down the services.

Since the rise of the net and social media though, with its immediate appearance worldwide, wowsers and petty tyrants are back to their old tricks and with the help of the well meaning but naïve, regularly mount cases for the abolition of the medium. RWL has become aware that an advisor to the leading member of one of our political dynasties is collecting posts about his master from this source. As said dynastic leader will not like it RWL advises him to email them to him.

Now there is a call to ban Facebook for causing blood feuds:

ABORIGINAL elders have blamed Facebook and social networking sites for a rise in "blood feuds" between warring clans. Some indigenous leaders want to ban or censor internet sites including Facebook to calm tensions in isolated Queensland communities.

Palm Island Mayor Alf Lacey said "unhealthy gossip" on social media sites had fuelled age-old animosities. "We are seeing kids getting on these chat rooms and bad-mouthing others," Mr Lacey said. "It is very public and stirs up old family rivalry and blood feuds.” …

Tribal leader Barry Walden, of Doomadgee on the Gulf of Carpentaria, called for a social media ban. A dozen youths clashed in a bloody street brawl this week after chatroom exchanges reignited a long-standing feud between clans in the former Aboriginal mission of 1100.

"It started out as name calling and petty stuff on-line," local woman Atlanta Taylor said yesterday. "It was rude tit-for-tat chat over the internet. You could call it a bit like cyberbullying. But then it got out of control.

Fortunately, there is a voice of sanity in all of this:

Palm Island's Alf Lacey is against a ban or censorship of the internet, saying that would be akin to discrimination. "But I do think kids need to be better educated on appropriate use of this technology," he said.

Police have urged warring families to be more responsible and to avoid violence.

Kids need to be taught the values of courtesy and respect for others as early as possible and some sensible perusal of their internet activities should be carried out by parents, although it has to be said that parents are at something of a disadvantage in this. It is reasonable to let children know of historical conflicts, but it probably wouldn’t hurt for them to be told that it is in the past and there is nothing to be gained by continuance of them.

Social media is neither a blessing nor a curse; the manner of its use can be either though.