That makes the coronavirus worse

is, an algorithm that amplifies lies is just really, really good for revenue.

So the posts that went furthest and fastest were fearmongering about the eating habits of Asian people and related hysteria, which the news sites just hoovered up.

Next thing, Chinese people in Western countries are being banned from shops and schools and abused on buses.

You may recall that H1N1 started in the USA, but that didn’t spawn endless digs about ‘‘the American virus’’ and ‘‘don’t let Americans near me’’ and ‘‘look at the weird hamburgers they eat, no wonder they got sick’’, but somehow we don’t think this tells us anything very reassuring.

We can’t help feeling a bit responsible. What can we do to fix it? Maybe we could make Facebook put truth next to the lies, like the gory photos on cigarette packets.

Maybe we could make it a rule that if you’ve been routinely spending more than two hours a day on Instagram, you have to take a three-day break and see if your life doesn’t feel better when you’re not comparing your own life with the confected stuff your besties are posting.

For every fabulous photo you put up, you’d have to have to put up 10 that show the parts of your day when you are working, vacuuming, breaking up with him, crying, cutting or purging.

There’s plenty that needs fixing, we can see that. Cyber bullying. The effect of violent porn on impressionable teens.

People being chewed up and spat out by the gig economy. Your privacy being eroded by colossal databases.

Monopoly powers wielded by the likes of Google and Amazon and Uber who have more money and power than actual countries and who can make you invisible if they feel like it.

So much power and so much influence in so few unaccountable hands. Sorry about that. Our bad.

It’s almost like, well, a virus that keeps on spreading.

We’d suggest you wash your hands and wear a mask, but to be honest we don’t really know if that’d do you any good at all.

The internet has been like Revenge of the Nerds only

with private jets. Shame about that well-informed, wiser society thing, though.