Online abuse is one of the most serious abuse one can ever experience.
The impersonal nature of the cyberspace somehow emboldens bullies who take their atrocious behaviour up a notch.
Two well-known people who have experienced the full force of cyberbullies in the past 24 hours are Ghanaian songstress Wendy Shay and the Manchester United midfielder, Paul Pogba.
Wendy was trolled for a response she gave in an interview when she answered a question about her net wealth. Paul Pogba, on the other hand, was racially abused online when he missed a penalty in Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at Molineux last Monday.
See Also: #ScreenShot: Manchester United And Twitter To Meet Over Paul Pogba Racist Abuse Row
The two incidents just put a spotlight on online abuse and how people hide behind their screens to cause emotional harm to others irrespective of the geographical distance between them.
Some of the Manchester United players came to Paul Pogba’s defence and they are obviously disgusted by the actions of the racists who have found a new way of abusing others online.
Many use anonymous accounts and cannot be tracked…
As a result, people are calling on social media platforms to do more to put an end to all forms of cyberbullying.
Manchester United player, Harry Maguire believes that if the social media platforms require users to verify their accounts with either their passports or other national identity cards, people will not be such bullies because they know they can be easily identified by officials when they do.
“Social media need to do something about it… Every account that is opened should be verified by a passport/driving licence. Stop these pathetic trolls making numerous accounts to abuse people,” Harry said in a tweet.
Disgusting. Social media need to do something about it… Every account that is opened should be verified by a passport/driving licence. Stop these pathetic trolls making numerous accounts to abuse people. @Twitter @instagram https://t.co/bzow073aTw
— Harry Maguire (@HarryMaguire93) August 20, 2019
Currently, a number of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others require new users to verify their accounts using mobile phone numbers.
However, since people can change their phone numbers and not all countries require sim-card registrations, it is sometimes difficult to track down trolls using their phone numbers.
What do you think? Should social media platforms require users to verify their accounts with passports or other national id cards?
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