The dark arts and enlightened Twitterati

The Gru is usually against social meeja and has blamed devious uses of it for wining the 2016 Referendum. Chaps who are not trained journalists post on it! Now they have discovered a possibly good side:

Some call it toxic, but a lively local Facebook group has brought young and old together to trade memes and debate

Edd Withers set up the Canterbury Residents Group on Facebook five years ago in an attempt to bridge the divide between the city’s large student population and its older residents....In 2017, students and remain-leaning residents of Canterbury helped Labour candidate Rosie Duffield do what many had thought impossible: turn a constituency that has voted Conservative for the past 160 years red...It’s an obvious place for the candidates to campaign, and all of them have agreed to do Facebook Live interviews on the group. Across the country such local Facebook groups are increasingly potent political forces. In Merthyr Tydfil one group was credited with helping to overthrow the council.

Journos might still object, though:

The information in the group tends to reflect the scattergun chaos of social media. 

And it is not always critical of the right people:

[Content included] an anti-Labour meme suggesting John McDonnell’s spending plans would cost too much, a lengthy discussion sparked by claims people had been seen smoking while queueing at a foodbank... and an image of Jeremy Corbyn superimposed on to an underwear model, declaring Labour was the sort of man who “ensures you come first”.[as well as]... an impassioned video [originally?] on Twitter calling on Labour and the Liberal Democrats to form a progressive alliance...By the evening, less than 24 hours after the video was uploaded, the Liberal Democrat candidate, Tim Walker, announced he was stepping down

Oh yes -- Twitter, once feared and loathed even more by guardianista journos. It seems jolly positive as well:

Throughout the day on Twitter, Brooks-Martin and Clifford also saw Corbyn’s pledge on childcare and news of the cyberattack on Labour. It’s where Brooks-Martin found a tactical voting website that told her to back Duffield for the best chance to remove the Tories from power and where many students watched Duffield’s moving speech in parliament about her personal experience with domestic violence.

Classic Graunies appear at the end:

Michael Coulson-Tabb, a 49-year-old part-time owner of a gourmet burger restaurant [who formerly 'worked in the financial sector before moving to the area in 2001'] who lives in the rapidly gentrifying seaside town of Whitstable, got much of his election-related news from Facebook and online news sites. ..While snipes about Brexit dominate the local resident group and Twitter, Coulson-Tabb said it was the personal tragedies and difficulties within their community that swayed who they would vote for. Many spoke of their frustration that those personal stories were lost in the fast-paced, ever-changing algorithm of Facebook and Twitter [and he provides his] .

And generational politics continues:

When one man posted a Back to the Future meme that called on Corbyn’s father to wear a condom this week, the likes were swift, but so was the almost uniform response from students: “OK Boomer.”

Shame on the Graun for using,and in effect promoting, this demeaning and insulting term!. If it spreads any further, I may find myself feeling so vulnerable and insecure that I might not be able to go out in public.