Message from the Prime Minister’s Office: if you criticise us, we will target you with trolls

Proving the point that I made yesterday, which is that the blog run by the Office of the Prime Minister has the main purpose of frightening critics of the government into silence or submission, the sustained and revolting assault launched on an entertainer by the Prime Minister’s aide and travelling companion has not only silenced him but has caused him to delete/remove comments he had posted already.

And to prove my point further, the Prime Minister’s aide is now boasting about how he has been silenced. The entertainer in question, Alan Montanaro, used to post comments regularly beneath news stories, comments that were mainly critical of the Labour government as is his right (and, I would say, duty) to do in a democracy.

The Prime Minister’s aide – and it is crucial that you know this – violated Disqus regulations by revealing the real email address (and therefore his identity) which Alan Montanaro uses to post comments under the pseudonym Bert Gauci. Disqus is the external comments-loading system which many news portals and websites, including this one, use.

The Labour Party/government can’t take any such criticism, particularly not when it comes from an entertainer who they expect as of by right to back Joseph Muscat along with all those other entertainers who did. The targeting of this particular entertainer is especially significant because it is obviously being done pour encourager les autres: in other words, to discourage other entertainers from voicing open criticism of ‘Joseph’ instead of backing him.

What the Prime Minister and his aide are doing here is communicating the message to enertainers (and others): if you criticise us or show others that you don’t like, agree with or support us, this is what we will do to you.