West Sussex MP praises ‘sensible’ plan to scrap online anonymity in bid to stop abuse

Arundel & South Downs MP Andrew Griffith supported a debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday, March 24, calling for new rules to tackle the abuse.

The issue has been widely exposed by high profile celebrities in the media who have been victims of this type of abuse, he said. But the abuse cuts much more deeply into the everyday lives of many people and is why MPs are calling for legislation to bring a stop to anonymous social media accounts.

Andrew Griffith has supported the call from his own constituent, TV presenter and campaigner Katie Price, who launched a new petition to Government two weeks ago.

Within days the petition reached more than 160,000 signatures giving it the support needed for a debate.

Andrew congratulated Siobhan Baillie MP on securing the debate and paid tribute to Katie Price for her work on the issue.

He said: “She [Katie] is a mum battling for her disabled son who is often abused online.

“Her petition makes the very sensible proposal to end online anonymity. No one has a right to a cloak to conceal their actions of harm. Both Katie’s petition and my honourable Friend’s own great work in this area deserves the support of the whole House.”

Katie’s petition calls for verification of social media accounts so that users must register accounts with an approved form of ID. This would make them easily trackable by the social media companies and police if a hate crime took place on their platforms.