Pressure is growing for anonymous social media accounts to be banned

Campaigners want to put a stop to online abuse

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Author: Charlotte FoleyPublished 2nd Mar 2021

Pressure is growing for staying anonymous on social media to be banned so people can't hide behind accounts to abuse people online.

Tech giants are being urged to demand users' real names so that police could track down trolls if they need to.

It comes as celebrities like England footballer Marcus Rashford and former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson were among those to have been abused repeatedly on social media in recent months.

Ellie Grady is a social media influencer from Scunthorpe with more than 120-thousand followers online - she told us:

"I think there is room for more much effective regulation - we wouldn't tolerate it in the workplace so we shouldn't be tolerating just because it's online and that person is behind a screen.

"A massive part of the issue is that people know that they can say anything they want and not face repercussions because they can't be traced.

"I think if people knew that could be identified and face consequences, then they would think a lot differently when they leave comments like they do."

Ellie Grady, Scunthorpe influencer

In the celebrity world - Wayne Lineker and Chloe Ferry recently pretended they'd got engaged by posting this pic 👇

BUT it turns out it wasn't actually real and they did it to see how much abuse he received for posting the photo before launching his new campaign "no excuse for abuse".

Wayne's told us that he's received abuse for more than 30 years and he's "thick skinned" but says he's not doing it for himself - he's doing it for others:

It's something the Victims' Commissioner wants to see happen too - she said:

“I think that getting rid of anonymity is fundamental to being able to enforce the law quite obviously.

“People sit at home with a funny name and say the most horrible thing, having quite a lot of pleasure because they can’t be found – that must be the point of it, mustn’t it, to do it without any comeback.

“It’s very unpleasant indeed and it’s imperative they be brought to justice.”

We've contacted Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram for their thoughts.