netrw#BrowseX fails when invoked from gvim on Ubuntu

I am using Vim 8.2 on Ubuntu 18.04.3

If I launch gvim and enter 

:call netrw#BrowseX('http://github.com', 0) 

the window flickers instantaneously and nothing further happens.

Performing the same action in terminal vim opens the URL in the browser as expected.

It seems likely that this is an issue with how Gnome hands this off to Linux. But where do I begin to prove this?

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