BEFORE the rise of the internet if someone told you that they were being plagued by trolls you would have feared that they were living in a fantasy world.

Today, so-called ‘social media trolls’ stalk the internet – just as nasty as those monsters who terrorised fairy tale characters – but the scary thing is that they are real.

Online trolls who hammer political figures with vile abuse could be slapped with a ban from standing for election, the Government has announced.

Constitution Minister Chloe Smith said talented people were being held back from running for office by the scale of intimidation online, and she said ministers would look at a crackdown on so-called fake news by forcing political material shared on the web to state clearly who is responsible for it.

A study last year found male Tory candidates were hit with the highest percentage of abuse on Twitter in the run-up to the 2017 election.

A separate analysis by Amnesty International found Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott received almost half of all abusive tweets sent to female MPs ahead of the vote.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Jess Phillips has said she once received 600 death and rape threats in a single day.

Politicians know that when they take office they will be held accountable for their decisions. But too many people seem to think that the law, and codes of common decency, don’t apply in cyberspace. They do and we applaud efforts to try to silence the trolls.