THIS newspaper has said it before and is saying it again. It is time to remove anonymity from the internet.

Anyone interested in healthy democracy and civic society should be extremely concerned at the level of abuse towards female politicians and woman in general. We welcome Meon Valley MP Flick Drummond’s highlighting of the issue when announcing in the House of Commons she is leaving the social media platform Twitter.

When we have raised this issue before we have been criticised for advocating something that would stop ‘whistleblowing’ and take away voices from the marginalised. In fact all it would do is take away the cover for, in this case, mysogynistic weirdos. Anyone who knows anything about whistleblowing knows that whistleblowers do not act anonymously. They raise their concerns with the appropriate authorities. No 'whistleblowing’ has every occurred solely via anonymous posts on web sites.

Others claim that anonymity gives a cloak to the ‘dispossessed’ but then struggle to give any examples.

The Chronicle is not advocating that every post on the internet should have a name underneath, but the publisher should know who that person is. Not just by an email address but a link to a Facebook registration or somesuch. If that is a deal-breaker for someone wanting to post, hard luck. Freedom of speech comes with the caveat that the person has to take responsibility for their words. And that means their identity being known. People have stood on the Buttercross for centuries exercising their rights but not whilst wearing a mask over their head.

In an ideal world none of this would be necessary but there are now too many people abusing the current situation.

In the 25+ years since the internet arrived many people have got used to being able to say what they like without any fear of the consequences. For a large number, of usually males and aged between 15-50, that has allowed them to be be as vile as they like. It is these strange people who speak the loudest about ‘freedom of speech’.

A culture of courseness has been allowed to grow in poisoned soil. The fertiliser for this was anonymity; that people could say what they liked and get away with it. But the foul racism and hatred of woman can no longer be allowed to thrive in the darkness. It’s time to shed some light.