Friday 16 November 2018

AI fights back

Fancy that! After all these years, our friends at Aggregate Industries blocked us on Twitter this week.


Readers may have noticed that we do use Twitter from time to time. We followed AI back in 2013. On odd occasions since then we’ve been minded to reply to one or two of their tweets; it would be rude not to.

What are we to think? Only recently, AI took to hiding Straitgate’s groundwater levels from us, "in-line with company policy". Now, blocking our Twitter account stops us contacting @AggregateUK and seeing their tweets (although it’s easy to get around the latter). But should we take this as progress? Or has AI just had a hissy fit? Or might it have been something we said? But, why now? The last time we replied to any of AI’s tweets was last month – on climate change:



Readers can decide for themselves why a corporation with sales in excess of £1 billion pa might take offence to a few tweets from a local action group in East Devon.

Whatever the reason, it's a pity that AI isn't grown up enough to accept the occasional dissenting voice. But that's ok. Many regard blocking on social media as an act of self-preservation. And AI is obviously sensitive to these sorts of things.

But a word of advice for @AggregateUK social media gurus: you can tweet bullshit but you can’t hide it; neither can you stop it from being embedded on this blog.

And by the way, for those following that epic fail at Silverstone, the fallout for AI is still ongoing. Shame.