The expression used to be "airing one's dirty laundry in public". Yet times have changed and technology has morphed the world as we know it, and the old adage has given rise to the term "airing one's dirty laundry on Facebook".

It's bad enough when it' s innocuous passive aggressiveness in relation to a bad breakup, or when one argues with a friend. But to do it with a country's Financial Services regulatory body is just plain foolhardy.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo has renewed his criticism of MFSA Chairman Joe Bannister while raising questions about how the Malta Financial Services Authority is run under his watch.

In the past couple of weeks Mr Bartolo insisted that Professor Bannister's position was no longer tenable, referring to directorships in the British Virgin Islands.

The Education Minister has ramped up the pressure on the MFSA chief, despite having been publicly scolded by fellow Labour MP Charles Mangion.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, who is responsible for the financial services sector, has so far refrained from commenting on the issue.

While Mr Bartolo is perfectly entitled to question what he sees as conflicts of interest, Facebook, an international domain, is certainly not the platform to do it on. What is the first thing employers do nowadays... they look up the Facebook profiles of people that have applied for jobs.

So, it only takes a little logic to figure out that anyone, or any entity, which might want to invest in Malta would do its research on the domicile, and then reach its conclusions.

Having a cabinet minister from that same country posting such brazen comments about such as sensitive sector is far from ideal - it is almost tantamount to sabotage. It seems that Malta's MPs - senior cabinet ministers no less - have not yet grasped the enormity of the internet, and in particular, the repercussions of taking to social media to make political statements. It's just not on. And that brings us to more important questions. Is the Prime Minister happy with the state of affairs? This feud seems to be getting nastier by the minute, and it will certainly not help Malta's reputation in the financial services sector. After all, what Mr Bartolo is basically saying is the head of Malta's Financial Services Authority is fraud.

Our question is simple. Given all the hullaballoo about the damage to Malta's reputation when it emerged that Minister Konrad Mizzi and Dr Muscat's Chief of Staff own companies in Panama, why has he not put his foot down and told his minister that there are other, more ideal channels  to use in a situation such as this.

Or could it be that Dr Muscat's once unshakable grip has loosened and that cabinet now has a few loose cannons firing off at will? Surely the Prime Minister must be aware of what is going on and surely, he must have told his minister to keep in check.  It is one of three scenarios, either Dr Muscat thinks that what is going on is totally acceptable, or he is blissfully unaware of what is taking place, or worse still that he has tried to take action and this behaviour is continuing with impunity.