MSP demands end to social media anonymity to help stem ‘torrent’ of abuse

A SENIOR Tory MSP has called for a ban on anonymous social media accounts to help clean the “cesspit” of abuse faced by politicians online.

Murdo Fraser, who won the Herald’s E-politician of the Year award in 2019 for deft use of social media, said anonymity was driving a daily torrent of “vile” posts.

Research into last month’s general election found candidates were subjected to four times the abuse seen in 2017, with around one-in-six messages directed at them insulting.

Analysis by Polimonitor on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Trust found 16.5 per cent of Twitter posts aimed at candidates were abusive, against 4% just two years earlier. Most of the abuse – 96% – was directed at

150 candidates, with a select handful attracting hundreds of angry messages each day.

The most attacked person online was Boris Johnson, followed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the then Libdem leader Jo Swinson.

Female candidates received slightly more abuse than male counterparts.

Online abuse has been cited as a significant factor in MPS standing down at the election, and a reluctance on the part of women in particular to enter politics.

Last year the prominent SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC revealed she had received a police escort to her constituency surgery after a “credible death threat” against her.

Kirstene Hair, the then Tory MP for Angus, also told the BBC she would go “insane” if she didn’t ignore the abuse she received, yet knew threats had to be taken seriously.

Writing in the Scotsman, Mr Fraser said there was a clear role for social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook in helping to curb attacks.

“It is simply too easy for any individual to set up an anonymous Twitter account and then use it to bombard those of a different political persuasion with abusive messages.

“Whilst tweets can be reported for inappropriate language, in my experience the bar is set very high in terms of what is viewed as permissible, and in any event, this is only addressing the problem after it has occurred.

“It is the anonymity of social media that makes abuse so prevalent.

“If individuals were required to identify themselves, they might be much less prepared to send vitriol to complete strangers who just happen to take a different political view.

“If they knew that family members, friends and work colleagues could see what they were posting, they might just pause and think before pressing send on a torrent of vile abuse.”

He acknowledged ending anonymity in social media would require a change of policy by the media leviathans involved, but said it was a step “that needs to be taken”. People had to change too.

“We cannot just blame the social media companies for a negative aspect of human character. This is an area where each and every one of us has to take personal responsibility.”

He said binary views on Brexit and Scottish independence had “undoubtedly contributed to the toxicity of the political debate”, and hoped the absence of a scheduled election in 2020 would make the atmosphere “a little less febrile”.