When a Facebook user this week commented that MEP Roberta Metsola ‘should be shot’, many passed it off as a triviality. It is, after all, an everyday expression that should not be taken literally. 

But it’s really a question of context - if the person being addressed is pointing a gun in your direction, you would do well to take it seriously. 

While, on the face of it, the comment in question may appear innocuous enough when viewed in isolation - and while it very well could have been made in the figurative sense - it becomes another matter altogether when it is put into context.

That context is a Facebook page called Save Malta, which lists its workplace as ‘Teutonic Malta’.  Yet another Facebook freak, but one with some pretty sick views on humanity that he or she appears intent on imparting far and wide.

The page has over 260 friends, the vast majority of which are Maltese, many of which, in turn, are obviously like-minded individuals.

The problem with this is that while the person who suggested the MEP should be shot for her recent address to the European Parliament may not necessarily take up his or her own suggestion, who knows if someone else might consider such a notion?

Given the twisted and sometimes violent content of this particular page, it is not too far a stretch to imagine one of its members considering taking up this or other suggestions in similar posts – such as those glorifying the beating of migrants.

These suggestions and outright threats - such as those received, and not for the first time, this week by the MEP – need to be stamped out one-by-one as soon as they rear their ugly heads.

And they certainly must not be allowed to spread. One of the best ways to prevent this is by enforcing a zero tolerance policy and by making the perpetrators face the full brunt of all the applicable laws.

Along such lines, the authorities need to investigate this incident as a matter of urgency, irrespective of whether a formal complaint is filed or not.

This newsroom recently carried an article about the fact that Malta leads the world, on a per capita basis, in terms of government requests for user information from Facebook.  The article also reported how a comparatively high 71% of the Maltese authorities’ requests were justified as far as Facebook was concerned. This is certainly one of those warranted cases and it is hoped that a request for has already been filed.

Despite the media exposure the comment has elicited, some of which was hopefully unwanted, it was still there at the time of writing yesterday afternoon.

This newspaper cannot but echo the condemnations that have come after Dr Metsola was threatened, yet again.  Given that this threat came below a video of the MEP speaking at the European Parliament, it was also an attack against democratic expression itself.

Such condemnation is, however, not enough. In these sensitive days in Europe when tempers and emotions on the issue flare easily, we must be extra prudent to not allow any such behaviour to spread, and enforce a zero tolerance policy wherever and whenever possible.

This one incident cannot be seen in isolation and must be recognised as being symptomatic of a wider social ailment.  Zero tolerance when it comes to its potential to spread is an absolute necessity.