Three simple steps which will clean up social media

SIR David Amess was murdered with a knife, not atwitter account. So why are so many MPS now calling for action to tackle anonymous abuse on social media?

The explanation is fairly simple: MPS get a lot of online death threats.when one of their colleagues has been murdered, it’s not really so surprising that they feel particularly concerned.

MPS’ staff tell me blocking abusive accounts is like whack-amole.they also explain that if a death threat is anonymous, it’s harder to assess how serious it is or how to act to protect yourself.

Many MPS also sense a broader link between the growth of social media and other developments.they notice that nastiness spilling over into other areas of society too – such as the increase in footballers being bombarded with racist abuse online.

But it’s not just MPS, footballers or celebrities who suffer. Over a quarter of UK social media users have been on the receiving end of bullying, harassment, or abuse, much of it from anonymous accounts. And even those of us who are not targeted directly still have to put up with toxic debate online.

I founded Clean Upthe Internet because I was sick of seeing debates ruined by trolling and misinformation, and sick of seeing others being threatened and bullied.

We’ve identified three simple changes that taken together would make a big difference for those suffering anonymous abuse and threats. Firstly, every social media

user should have a right to verify their identity.to taketwitter as an example, that would mean every user (not just politicians, celebrities or footballers) would be able to get a “blue tick” to confirm they are who they claim.

Secondly, we could all see who is verified and decide for ourselves how much to trust the claims of an unverified user.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, every user should have a choice about whether unverified users can interact with them. Rather than our only option being to block or report abusive accounts one by one, after the event, we should be able to block all unverified accounts from the off.

Many people would simply ban all anonymous accounts but not all of them are abusive, and some have important reasons for withholding their identities – such as whistleblowers.

Also, we know that most UK social media users would be happy to verify if they had the option, so why not give us more choice and more control?

MPS know they will need to vote through changes to the law.

Social media companies will always fight measures that could hurt their profits – anonymous accounts stir up controversy and inflate user numbers, both of which help to sell more adverts.

Action to hold social media firms to account for the hatred they amplify on their platforms is long overdue.