Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie has presented her Social Media Platforms (Identity Verification) Bill to the House of Commons.

The proposal is to give people the choice to verify their accounts so that they can only follow and be followed by verified accounts. The MP hopes this will down on anonymous abuse.

Siobhan Baillie MP told Punchline Gloucester: "It would provide a deterrent. You wouldn't be so abusive if you knew your details were being held. It would make it easier to trace you if you were abusive."

She said she had been approached by Stroud constituents with stories about the hurtful things that have been said online and supporting her campaign.

The MP said she was not trying to stop free speech and the anonymous postings on social media were preventing people from exercising their free speech.

She said: "As it stands, there's quite a lot of people, particularly women who have to think twice about what they say online because often speaking out will result in death threats, or rape threats and the horror show that you will have seen."

The task now for the MP is to get government ministers to adopt this bill into the Online Safety Bill which is currently proceeding through parliament.