Today my post on the WordPress platform has not brought any hits on my website nor interest in my novel Presumed Dead, a political crime fiction thriller. The book is set in a hung parliament. The title of my post was Must Parliament be Hung? It was inoffensive, apolitical and informative. I have received no complaint about the content of my post. I am disappointed that my information didn’t reach anyone..

I assume reach to my 130 followers was suppressed by a WordPress algorithm sensitive to political issues. I am alarmed that my post offering analysis and alternatives for Australia’s democracy has been taken out at a time when discussion is wanted. In the opinion of most people, a healthy democracy allows its political processes to be discussed respectfully. 

Guy Debord, a French philosopher, wrote in The Society of the Spectacle (1967) that the people are exploited by the leaders for profit, with images created by the media and others. The spectacle is totalitarian. This theory would explain the suppression of my post, because discussion of a hung parliament could increase or decrease profits and leader interests. 

If the algorithms would stop my post earlier today reaching anyone, then the spectacle could stop this one, because it exposes the monetisation intent of WordPress in allowing reach. Our future could be bleak.

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