Why verified social media will be a force for good

Social media has a problem. A huge problem. User anonymity is turning what used to be a fun place filled with cat videos, topical 280-character humour and #humblebrag status updates into something much darker, even weaponised. Because when anyone can create a social profile, using anyone’s name, then there’s no accountability.

Of course, in many cases, fake profiles are a bit of harmless fun. Kids trying to keep their accounts secret from their parents – just like they used to hide their diary under the bed – or celebrities who want to be on social but like to keep a low profile. The Finsta (fake Insta) accounts are a good example of this.

After all, it was the mysterious freedom of the internet – the fact that you could be whoever you wanted to be online – that was so liberating when the web was born. Digital forums with anonymous usernames, debating everything from pop music to politics, flourished because people felt empowered to share their views.

Increasingly though, this lack of accountability has been hijacked by those looking to spread anger, hate and misinformation. From bots set up to influence elections to trolls and online predators prowling social timelines for their next victim, social media has lost its fun, positive feel. And sadly, these bots and bad actors are set up more quickly than moderators can ban them.

It’s a high-profile battle. In recent years, celebrities from former model Katie Price to Manchester Utd captain Harry Maguire and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry have called on social media companies to demand proof of genuine names and other ID, as a means to track trolling.

And few can have missed the fact that following their Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy, England?players Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were all subject to abusive posts in the wake of their missed penalties in the shoot-out. Encouragingly, this has led to a petition submitted to the UK Government (currently at 687,000 signatures), asking that it becomes a legal requirement to submit verified ID in order to have a social media account.

The thing is that, crucially, doing this is eminently achievable. More than half of tech experts polled (56%) by the professional body for the IT industry recently, including senior leaders and academics, said linking social media accounts to true identities is technically achievable. 90% said it should be made simple for social media users to see and turn off all unverified accounts. They also added that verified identity details should not have to be part of users’ public profiles.

I totally understand the importance of the latter. Online anonymity is needed in parts of the world where social media users live under oppressive regimes, which might potentially imprison them (or worse) if they share views around issues such as politics, race and sexuality.

Social media companies have previously resisted the idea of introducing identification verification, arguing that as well as possible privacy concerns for users, it would be unfair as many people around the world do not have access to an official ID.

And I get this too. The likes of Facebook and Twitter want to make entry to their platforms as frictionless as possible. But at what price?

As an entrepreneur, this issue has been gnawing away at me for a long time. And in the last year I’ve taken steps to address it. Although I can’t reveal too much at the moment, I’m currently working on a terrifically exciting project that combines not just a fully verified social media platform, but one that has purpose and giving at its heart. A round of capital-raising has now seen us move to the beta testing stage of the app that drives the platform and, so far, the feedback from our focus groups has been overwhelmingly positive.

For those that know me well, you’ll be aware that I’ve launched a diverse range of businesses over the years but, quite honestly, none have given me the buzz that this one has. At the risk of sounding a little pretentious, I genuinely believe this new project could help make the world a better place. Because social media does have the ability to raise the sum total of human happiness, provided it’s harnessed in the right way. And I can’t wait to show you how.