Boris Johnson can take global lead in stopping web moguls allowing trolls to run riot: Bernard Ingham

It has now let loose its evil trolls on an eight-year-old disabled Liversedge lad, Zach Eagling.

Inspired by another Yorkshireman, Captain Sir Tom Moore, Zach, suffering from epilepsy and cerebral palsy, has raised £20,000 for charity by walking 2.6km for the first time without his frame.

And not content with blocking Trump’s Twitterings, Facebook has closed its news and information service to 17 million Australians because the Australian government is proposing to require “social media” – anti-social more like – to pay publishers for their news content.

The Australian prime minister has described it as an “arrogant act of intimidation”. For once, a politician might be accused of under-statement.

Incidentally, who is Facebook’s head of global affairs and communications team? Why, Sir Nick Clegg, ex-Liberal Democrat leader, who seems to be doing Facebook about as much good as he did the Tory/ Lib Dem coalition of 2010-15.

This should bring to a head the position of the mighty web moguls of this world. They are routinely damaging individuals – and especially children – while, without any democratic mandate, threatening governments that seek to exercise control over their operations.

It cannot be allowed to go on. We cannot have this planet dictated to – and regularly misinformed by – unrestrained global networks.

You may argue that governments have always complained of being misrepresented. I certainly plead guilty as an ex-press secretary to hauling the media over the coals for their speculation, conspiracy theories and uninformed comment.

But I stopped short of accusing them of “fake news” when you could bet your bottom dollar their quest for stories had rendered them gullible to government opponents.

Now “fake news” is an industry conducted by unscrupulous extremists via the internet to try to secure political advantage or apply pressure to serve their ends.

Worse still, it is a den of iniquity plastered with porn, paedophilia and the grooming and corruption of youngsters. There can be no greater crime short of murder. It is damaging the future of the human race.

As always, it is not the internet per se that is the problem. It is the way the invention is being used – and is being allowed to be used by the internet giants.

No one with any sense of responsibility can accept its continuation. What then should be done about it?

Let us first acknowledge the immense value of the internet to ordinary folk like me who keep in touch with friends through it, can scour Google by way of research and communicate almost instantly with former colleagues across the world.

I am typing this on my computer and will send it in a flash to The Yorkshire Post by email instead of dictating it to a copy-typist, as I did for years as a reporter, or later faxing it.

We must not throw out the good, the convenient, the useful or indeed the economic with the bad.

Equally, we must not assume that everybody has access to it or, if they do, can work their way through the intricacies of the system.

In short, how do we clean it up if the internet companies won’t? The answer is for Boris Johnson, through organisations such as the UN, the G7 summit and the Commonwealth, to take the lead in bringing the internet companies in line with the defamation and pornography laws governing press, radio and TV. There is no justification for double standards.

Over and above that, we need a uniform code of practice over acceptable operations and harassment.

How then to make it stick? The necessary legislation, policed by perhaps a vamped-up Press Council, now Ipso, would open the internet bosses to sanctions, fines and, of course, litigation.

But we shall not achieve much unless every contributor to the internet is required, on pain of imprisonment, to fully identify himself – name, address etc – so that he or she has no hiding place.

To be effective against zealots there would have to be global control. Come on UN, where are you?

Given the torrential outpouring of the internet I recognise that any regulator would be at best hard pressed, but it would make a difference if the internet companies knew they could forfeit a lot of their ill-gotten gains by neglecting to police their output.

If they want to be looked up to they had better acquire some responsibility as well as vast profits from their intrusive advertising.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.