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Debate: Can the Internet Be Made Safe?

What practical steps can be taken to clean up the toxic culture of the internet and make it safe for all?

Racist slurs, rape threats, sexual harassment, misinformation – the internet is awash with vicious trolls and bad actors, lowering the quality of public discourse and creating a culture of hatred and mistrust.

What can be done? Removing the cloak of online anonymity that allows people to hide their identity seems an obvious solution. That would allow users recourse to the law if they fall victim to online abuse. But many argue that a ban on anonymity would do more harm than good. In myriad ways, they say, the internet is still living up to its original promise to be a place where people can express themselves without judgment, whether it is a gay person from a strictly religious background exploring their identity in a chatroom or an anxious teenager seeking support from a self-help forum. Online anonymity also allows whistle blowers and activists to speak out without fear of harmful consequences to themselves, and it enables undercover journalists to join groups and expose wrongdoing. 

In February 2022 we were joined by tech writer and podcaster Jamie Bartlett, MP Margaret Hodge and online safety campaigner David Babbs, as they discussed and debated the practical steps that can be taken to clean up the toxic culture of the internet and make it safe for all.

 


Speakers

Speakers

Margaret Hodge

Labour MP, former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and campaigner on women’s rights


Labour MP for Barking and Dagenham since 1994. She held a number of ministerial roles in the last Labour government, with portfolios across education, work and pensions, business and culture, and she served as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from 2010 to 2015. She identifies as an ethnic Jew, and has been a feminist and campaigner on women’s rights for as long as she can remember. Her exposure to antisemitic and misogynistic abuse online has led her to question the emphasis on freedom of speech as opposed to freedom from harm, with regard to online anonymity. She is a supporter of the government’s Online Harms Bill.

Jamie Bartlett

Author and expert on the politics of the internet. The Missing Cryptoqueen is his latest book


Author and expert on the politics of the internet. He is Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, a collaboration between the University of Sussex and the think tank Demos. He is the author of The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld, Radicals: Outsiders Changing the World, and The People vs Tech. He presented the BBC series ‘Secrets of Silicon Valley’ and in 2019 he wrote and presented the hit BBC podcast series ‘The Missing Cryptoqueen’, which exposed the biggest ever cryptocurrency scandal. He has also turned the story into a book, which will be published in June 2022.

David Babbs

Online safety campaigner and political strategist at Clean Up the Internet


Online safety campaigner and political strategist at Clean Up the Internet, an independent, UK-based organisation which campaigns for government and tech industry action, to increase civility and respect online, and to reduce online bullying, trolling, intimidation and misinformation. He was previously the founding Executive Director of 38 Degrees, an organisation that used digital technology and social media to involve millions of people in the political process.
Chair

Manveen Rana

Senior investigative journalist and host of The Times and Sunday Times flagship podcast Stories of Our Times


Senior investigative journalist and host of The Times and Sunday Times flagship podcast Stories of Our Times. She was previously a broadcaster and reporter for BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme and The World at One.