A few weeks ago, MailOnline carried a rather mundane story about some personnel changes at my charity, Sarah’s Trust, and another I support as patron, Humanitas. The piece reported quite fairly some of the work that we have been doing, including supplying hundreds of sleeping bags and essential supplies to homeless people. I rarely venture into readers’ comments, finding the online world rather frightening, but for some reason on this occasion I decided to scroll through what people were saying. I should have been put off by the warning that greeted me: ‘The comments below have not been moderated.’ Someone calling themselves Russell Nash, of the Highlands, had written simply: ‘Leech.’ Cannae2301, who described themselves as coming from ‘Londonistan’, declared: ‘Didn’t she represent WeightWatchers once? Looks like it didn’t work for her.’ Avast, supposedly of Futtocks End, resurrected and misspelled an old tabloid nickname of mine: ‘The Dutchess of Pork.’ Growly Sheep from Gotham insisted: ‘They draw huge salaries from the many “charities”’ (a completely false allegation).
The experience reinforced my impression that much of the internet is an unregulated Wild West.
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