When news of US tech giants joining forces in an "unprecedented push against the sharing of terrorist content" hit front pages of Australian newspapers last week, readers could realistically have been left with the assumption that Facebook et al were finally making wholesale changes to smarten up their act, after the nadir of broadcasting the Christchurch terror shootings to the world.

The trouble is, that is just not reality ... it was simply what they wanted everyone to think, because they know the court of public (and therefore government) opinion is firmly against them.