Yesterday I was asked to join the Facebook group "Cameron is Right About the Raoul Moat Tribute Page But He's Still a C***". I exercised my right not to sign up.
Social media is revolutionary as it brings easy, one-click self-publishing to everyone – prime ministers and killers with narcissistic character disorders alike. As a society we are still getting our heads around the concept of freedom of expression in cyberspace. Or at least most of us are. Clearly the prime minister and the editor of the Daily Mail are not. They know what is right and wrong, good and evil, and no number of comments on Moat's macabre Facebook tribute page will convince them we live in a confused and complex world of moral ambiguity and mistrust of authority.
Of course, everyone has their own definition of freedom of expression and Facebook should defend theirs. And this week, of all weeks, the government and the prime minister should respect and understand Facebook's position. After all, this is the week that George Osborne launches the Spending Challenge website, a seemingly unmoderated blog that allows citizens to suggest how the axe should be swung in the public sector. "Don't build any more useless websites" was one of the most popular and sensible suggestions. Other brutally frank responses from the hive mind of the nation were that pregnant women on benefits should have to abort their foetuses and that unemployed youths are cannon fodder in Afghanistan. My understanding is the prime minister had neither condemned the chancellor nor demanded he take the pages down. The last time I checked, the offending comments were still on the site, where there is also now a call for a Raoul Moat memorial day.
Right now, the prime minister must be regretting publishing the Skype call he made to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. You see, Her Majesty's government launched a Facebook cuts consultation only this week, within 72 hours of Moat killing himself. The finely crafted brand of a prime minister who cares what you think was enhanced just that little bit more.
I would love Downing Street to publish the Skype calls where Cameron instructs the precocious billionaire founder of Facebook to take the Moat tribute page down. The first social media mogul to give Cameron the finger on Skype would be a YouTube sensation and the Daily Mail would love it. Everyone is a winner.
Actually, of course, the story in the Daily Mail says the prime minister has "ordered Downing Street officials to contact Facebook [...] to lodge a formal protest." Herein lies a problem. Most of the prime minister's officials are not allowed to use Facebook on government computers. Social media sites are banned in most government departments because civil servants are not trusted to be sensible with their time and private opinions. If Cameron wanted to do something sensible, such as allow his officials to engage with citizens using social media, then might find some real answers to the spending challenge.
And were he to drop by and engage with those posting comments on the Moat Facebook page or instruct a Home Office minister to do so, he might be able to change the misplaced – and some frankly ludicrous – views of the alienated members who think all politicians are out for themselves and not interested in their fears and ideas.
If he were to commission an official to find out why 30,000 people need to join a Facebook tribute page to Raoul Moat he might be able to understand, with a little more clarity, how to mend his Broken Britain.