The hatred and racism plumbing worrying new depths on social media has to be tackled

Twitter - or X, as Elon Musk rebranded it - has become a toxic cesspit where timelines are filled with right-wing rage and hate. Commenting on Facebook is rapidly following suit.

In common with many politicians, Melanie Ward MP has turned off the ability to comment on Twitter. I don’t blame her.

Her Facebook page remains open for comment and discussion, but what passes for debate these days is just desperate. It has reached the stage where one post attracted so much bile, police are now checking to see if some messages meet a criminal threshold.

They came under an update after she visited Kirkcaldy Islamic Centre following an incident on Boxing Day She was joined by local politicians, police, and a local minister - an act of support and solidarity.

The level of racism, hatred and vitriol it generated was so appalling that she switched off the comment function, and deleted some of the worst abuse.

I wish it was an isolated incident. Sadly it is becoming the norm, and I don’t think Meta even cares. Try reporting a post and you often get an AI response rejecting it quicker than any human could possibly open a post, let alone read it and reach a reasonable conclusion.

Twitter has a specific box to tick to highlight targeted abuse. I’ve used it numerous times, and could count on one hand the number of times any action has been taken, and still have fingers free to keep typing.

Muting and blocking are valuable tools for anyone unfortunate to have to wade through this sewer of bile, but it’s clear that the tech giants need to be held to account for allowing the platforms they created to become polluted by hatred, and hijacked to spread deliberate misinformation targeted at minority groups.

Every story we publish on housing - new homes being built, council initiatives to add to the housing stock - are now drowned in a slew of comments saying "aye, that'll be for migrants." For the first time in 50 years the term ‘boat people’ is being used by people who weren’t even born when it first appeared in the 1970s. One poster reckoned the only way they’d get a house was if they blacked up.

The racism - casual, throw away and utterly repugnant - is beyond disheartening. It is downright dangerous. The stench of utter ignorance is overpowering.

We can, and should, call it out, but the problem with social media is once you’ve posted your comment, your attention moves on to the next target, and the damage is done. Worryingly, many people don’t even see what’s wrong, shrug their shoulders and mutter platitudes about ‘hurty words’ with a wee ‘woke’ jibe to generate more likes.

Those who sound the dog whistle do it to create a very deliberate narrative that demonises migrants and ethnic minorities, and to stir up division. The danger is those words are now pouring like sewage into real life. We are a million light years away from the #bekind movement.

And words matter because they can wound deeper than any knife, and can have devastating, damaging consequences.

People must be held responsible for what they post.