CaRT—and Facebook

I have looked into allegations that comments on the Trust's Facebook have been removed. I have found one case which contained a reference to charity chuggers, writes Canal & River Trust Trustee John Dodwell.

As your readers will know, all Facebook and similar sites have some 'rules of behaviour'. These vary but they can include a rule that derogatory remarks will not be allowed.

Felt to be derogatory

In this case, describing people's work as 'chugging' was felt to be derogatory to those people and so the comment was taken down. Now, whether it was derogatory is a matter of opinion (as is the question of whether throwing out insults is a good form of debating!).

I am told that no other comments have been removed; if anyone has evidence to the contrary, do let me know. As your readers will know, narrowboatworld itself operates a policy of deciding whether to publish what is submitted to it and I have sometimes found the Editor declining to publish my comments or suggesting amending them.

Free world

With the Trust, we accept it is a free world and people can say what they like—however wrong I might think they are—so long as it is not libellous, derogatory or otherwise infringes the rules of behaviour (which are on the Trust's Facebook site). Trust staff tell me they would actually contact people whose posts had been removed, and explain the reasons for removing it; this would give them a chance to edit and resubmit their post.

I think this shows that the Trust is open about this and doesn't just go around deleting posts it doesn't like.