Stephen Pollard

of a large knife, with the warning to “watch your back Jewish scum”. She would, he said, “get it like Jo Cox”. He was sent down for more than two years.

Neo-Nazi Joshua BonehillPaine was convicted of raciallyaggravated harassment after a series of anti-Semitic rants sent to Ms Berger after the jailing of fellow extremist Garron Helm, who had also targeted her.

Bonehill-Paine called her a “an evil money-grabber”, said the number of Jewish Labour MPs was a “problem”, superimposed her face on a picture of a rat and commended the “Filthy Jew Bitch Campaign” led by US white supremacist site Daily Stormer as “fantastically successful” after she was sent 2,500 abusive tweets.

These are not just idle digital threats. When she attended this year’s Labour conference, Ms Berger had to have police protection – because the culprits are not just the far Right. Many of the most abusive comments she receives come from Corbynites.

I looked at her Twitter feed yesterday. She had written about her police protection. In response, a series of Corbyn supporters attacked her for supposedly lying. One wrote: “Contact Liverpool Police instead of parroting this lie. Berger did NOT have police protection.” Another wrote:

IT IS true that no one is forced to join them. But while they may be private, they have a public duty given that they depend on mass participation. As the Duke of Cambridge pointed out, they are failing lamentably in this duty.

“What I found was that the sector did not want to own this issue. I heard doubts being cast about the scale of the problem. I was told that companies were already doing plenty and just needed more credit for it.

“I saw denials about the age of young children on some of our most popular platforms. And crucially I heard over and over again that a collective approach – across the industry, with charity partners, ISPs, researchers, and parents – just wouldn’t work.

“As this list of unintended consequences grows, a culture of defensiveness is undermining the sector’s relationship with the public.”

Damning as this is, it is a polite way of putting what is happening: these companies are making fortunes off the backs of bullying and abuse.

The Duke continued: “Technology companies still have a great deal to learn about the responsibilities that come with their significant power. I am very concerned though that on every challenge they face – fake news, extremism, polarisation, hate speech, trolling, mental health, privacy, and bullying – our tech leaders seem to be on the back foot.”

By refusing to act and by providing a platform for those directly responsible, they are indirectly responsible for the deaths of those for whom it all gets too much. Social media and the internet are a boon. But they have a dark side. And the companies which make such vast profits must act in line with their responsibilities.

If they don’t, then governments must force them to.

‘They make fortunes on the back of abuse’