Social media companies cannot escape scrutiny when it comes to improving the safety of MPs
Editorial: It’s clear action has to be taken. But the response needs to be workable, as anonymity can provide vital protection to whistleblowers and human rights campaigners
Interviewed on Sky News on Sunday morning about the killing of her friend and fellow Essex MP David Amess, Priti Patel suggested one response from the government might be to end the anonymity allowed to social media users.
Such a ban has long been supported by several MPs, including Diane Abbott, Margaret Hodge and Chris Bryant. Many politicians, particularly women, are routinely subjected to vile abuse and physical threats which, if made without the cowardly cloak of anonymity, would amount to a criminal offence.
“We can’t carry on like this,” the home secretary told Trevor Phillips. “We want to make some big changes.” However, by the time she gave her second interview of the morning an hour later – to the BBC’s Andrew Marr – she had rowed back a little. This came after Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, had pointed out on the same two programmes that online anonymity offers vital protection to whistleblowers and human rights campaigners in places such as Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Belarus. For this reason, Ms Patel conceded that any such curbs would have to be “proportionate and balanced”.