Stuck in endless loops. REPEATEDLY. Don’t give me any of this “computer error” stuff — people created those algorithms. Don’t want to hear the standard corporate blame shift, either. Is there some deeper, more sinister thing ongoing? You never know, but I doubt it.

Generically, THIS again

by Eric Jackson

The lockout from the Facebook account is a big problem for The Panama News operation. We were at the same time locked out of Twitter, but rather easily got back in.

A Sunday before the US elections politically motivated cyberattack? Could be, but at this point there is only the circumstantial suggestion. And it’s not as if MAGAs would be the only ones with a motive to pull that stuff, or that every MAGA approves of it.

Our worst hack, back in 2006, was when a bot coming out of China was used to shut down The Panama News website, and years later it was pointed out that a story we did on Falun Gong in Parque Omar was massively smuggled across China’s Internet Firewall. The Chinese government? Some indignant Chinese citizen striking back as an individual against what appeared to be an enabler of what the party designated as an “evil cult?” Someone non-Chinese who employed a botsmith in China? I can’t say for sure, but the circumstances, and a later agreement between China and the USA in which the former agreed to stop doing this sort of stuff, suggests the Beijing government.

Look to Panama and we have this gringo community that’s as bitterly divided as Americans in the USA are. PLUS all these factions of the political caste and individuals of illustrious families who demand more respect and deference than this independent publication is willing to give. Plus, notwithstanding the judges and prosecutors who have been persuaded to grant impunity, the occasional use of Panamanian government resources for cyber-criminal activities, some of it aimed at the press.

Better to concentrate on resilience rather than figuring out who did it and why. But the thought of abandoning 13 years of Facebook content and just starting anew on that platform is distasteful.

The Panama News Facebook wall is mostly a blog — a selection of other people’s work, with commentary. A lot of groups, movements and cultural scenes are promoted there for no monetary charge.

We also do a lot of blogging on our Twitter feed, which has tended to have a bit of a different focus. We are found at https://twitter.com/ThePanamaNews or just @ThePanamaNews. Join us there, but then Twitter has all of a sudden gone through some drastic changes, like with the new owner’s defamatory queer-baiting attack on a hospitalized Paul Pelosi (later retracted) and the importation, or in many cases re-importation, of reinforcements for stuff that would get someone thrown in Facebook Jail for posting it on that platform. The social media barons are trending GOP because sentiment among Democrats is ever stronger that they should be subjected to anti-monopoly laws.

This, too, shall pass. And meanwhile we carry on and adjust.

Eric Jackson
The Panama News