Really??

We all have friends who have views or life styles that seem odd. Sometimes that is their attraction, but underneath I think all of us have certain core values. In my case these would be around valuing and respecting everyone no matter who they are or where they come from and not demonising those I do not agree with.

I might and do know people with these views, but I would not consider them my friends, nor would I let them befriend me online.

MOnica I have a couple of fb 'friends' I've never met, we communicate solely about the charity we support. I rarely comment on the odd daft post that appears, though I do challenge nonsense like the stuff above. Not in a confrontational way I hope - I don't have any RL friends, on fb or anywhere else whose politics fit into the BF category.

Well, I think I am about to be defriended by my son's ex girlfriend (now married with a family) as I have replied, carefully but truthfully, to a "which one of my friends will copy and paste this" bit of blackmail doing the rounds on FB. It is a lazy and unpleasant way to get support - in this case for those with mental health issues. It took me a good read to find out that was want it was intended to be about. My niece puts some of these on too. I really dislike them.

I was going to write a post challenging the pensioner income figures in this bit of racist nonsense, but realised in time that to do so is to give these fake facts credence. So I won't.

If any 'friend' of mine, know matter how 'nice,' started circulating this type material. I would, without doubt be putting a distance between us, as our friendship would be based on a complete misunderstanding of our basic values. Even someone easily led, should recognise this noxious racist material for what it is.

Thanks GG I don't have all the people from the facebook group on my own link and the person who occasionally imo oversteps the mark is someone I have more contact with because we are geographically close. My left leaning political fb comments probably irritate some but I avoid getting into fb rows wherever possible, life is too short.

Iam there may be a way for your voluntary work group to stay in touch without their general posts it impinging on you or your real "friends". I am a member of several "closed groups" on FB. It means the posts within those groups does come into my FB feed but my 'friends' do not see them. It would also mean you would not see all the other volunteers 'friends' posts either. I cannot see the other posts of the members of the closed groups - just the ones they are posting on the subjects I am interested in.

It might be worth suggesting and I don't think it is that difficult to set up.

NfKD, I agree with your point about the difficulties in unfriending people on fb, who post the kind of thing your fb friend did. I have a few fb friends I'm linked to via some voluntary work we're involved with. We need to be 'friends' in order to share information relevant to the charity. I occasionally delete posts from these fb friends, like the one you set out above. I know the people involved to be decent folks who sadly can be influenced by the kind of nasty stuff peddled by eg Britain First. I know it can be irritating to have the Daily Mail referred to but - that paper often prints similar nonsense, dressed up as fact.

A lot of groups give the option to members to add their friends.
The friends should then get a notification saying this has happened but they might not read their notifications if they get a lot of them.

I just checked my settings and groups. Nothing strange. And checked how I appeared to anyone who’s not my friend. The only thing a stranger can see are my profile photos. All six of them and only one of me and DH. Just in case an old friend wants to get in touch.

dj I think it behoves any politician to monitor their social media profiles very carefully. It’s really not that hard to see what FB groups you’re on.

Today there was a backbenchers general debate (they choose the subject) on Holocaust Memorial Day. The title was "The Power of Words". There were a lot of excellent and thoughtful speeches about how words have often been and are still often are, the forerunner of far worse.

I still believe, and believe I have the right to say that we need to be careful about how and where words are used - even when it is only quoting others.

I thought maryeliza was rude and disrespectful to Nfk and about her friend. That's just my opinion and although I did not report this thread to GNHQ, I'm not surprised it stepped in.

That's good, Nfk. Hope you don't fall out too much.

I am sorry I named the wrong person WMKF. It was entirely a mistake. Not the wrong end of the stick just too little attention to a set of initials I'm afraid.

It you really think personal remarks were made while others - certainly including me, except for the two I alluded to - do not. Why not explain which ones you believe to be aimed at someone rather than their post.

The links Eglatine, Wilma and DJ gave me provided the accurate information I needed to respond to the post, hopefully without giving too much offence. By being able to give full facts I hope I’ve been able to stop this ‘friend’s’ friends believing what she posted and sharing it further.

By the way, I am not on facebook, so know nothing about it. Just repeating stuff from people who profess to.
I've lost count of the number of emails I've sent to people who have never seen them because they are too busy to look.
These days I have to send them an email, then phone to tell them I've sent them.

"They’re public groups so you don’t need to accept anything, it’s automatic. If you get a lot of notifications it’s easy to miss being added into groups.

It’s a well-known tactic some of the racist right use to harrass – add someone you want to embarrass into offensive groups and then ‘expose’ them."

If they were very busy, jane, and did not have time to look at facebook all the time.
Why would someone check up to see if they'd been added to a group they didn't know about, as in the Andrew Gwynne example?

GracesGran can I just repeat what lemongrove said. I didn't start this thread. It was me that posted the link to the page on fullfacts.org dealing with the information Nfk found on her Facebook page. She said she had no idea where to go to check the facts. I think you got the wrong end of the stick.

I do think personal remarks were made and I'm not surprised GNHQ posted.

However I’m not sure how anyone would not know they’d been added to a group.

It’s possible maizie.
I was added to a group by someone I knew, fortunately a fairly innocuous professional group.

Will someone explain to me how you can get added to public groups by someone other than ones self?

(I'm an entirely unsophisticated facebook user..)

This might have some bearing on how facebook can work.
I know some of you don't like skwawkbox or the Labour Party, but it's worth reading to find out how easy it is to smear people.

skwawkbox.org/2018/01/17/fawkes-displays-facebook-ignorance-to-smear-gwynne/

There is no reason for anyone to be so unpleasant to the OP at all, she doesn’t agree with the messages and quite rightly, it’s a load of garbage that has been doing the rounds for a while.

No one was being unpleasant about the OP Lemons, just commenting on something she chose to post. You are only the second person I have seen attacking particular members although I calling people 'the usual suspects' is more likely to make people laugh than cry. These are grannies you are having a go at

Good luck.