It’s easy to forget that social media does a lot of good as well as bad

I agree that social media must be investigated for facilitating the far-right violence against refugees over the past week or so. The “oligarchs” of social media such as Elon Musk need to be brought under the rule of law, otherwise we risk being overpowered by billionaires who feel free to use their wealth as a means of political dominance, which will break the authority of democratic institutions.

Nevertheless, we must not forget the positive influence of social media – specifically how it was the means by which local communities across the country disempowered the thugs. Who could not be impressed by the “refugees welcome” banners on display everywhere across England? They seemed to appear almost spontaneously, yet Facebook groups made some contribution, surely?

I suppose the key is to clarify what information shared on social groups is acceptable in our society, and what is plainly obnoxious.

Simon Fisher

Sellindge, Kent

The heartrending images of body parts scattered on floors in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza defy comprehension. Sadly, the global community appears powerless in ending this seemingly intractable cycle of terrifying violence and death, and in stopping the relentless bombardment of innocent people.

The denial of the inalienable rights of Palestinians cannot continue unabated. How many more people must perish before the international community intervenes to put an end to these horrendous crimes?

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London

I must strongly commend the letter from Dr Ellen Nolan regarding the most effective means of combatting anti-vax rhetoric. Even before the Covid pandemic enabled anti-vaxxers to recruit huge numbers of people, we were suffering from collective memory loss: my parents would be approaching 100 if they were still around, and they remembered the epidemics before the war and the small army of disabled people on our streets in those days. Quite simply how many people are left that clearly remember the pre-vaccination era?

I certainly believe that, as Dr Ellen mentioned, we must seriously look at obligatory childhood immunisations for school and nursery placements. Plenty of diehards will switch to home schooling, which already is top-heavy with anti-vaxxers, but it should propel the vaccinated numbers upward to get us at least near the level for herd immunity. Fingers crossed.

Robert Boston

Kent

The case of Rachael Gunn, aka Raygun, the Australian breakdancer whose performance in the Olympics was widely derided is a perfect example of how our social media use has spiralled out of control.

It seems like a fairly benign thing, but this woman has been subject in just a few days to a lifetime’s worth of mockery. Worse still, we don’t seem to see anything wrong with that as a society.

Maybe it’s time to think about how we use the internet and social media, preferably in such a way that the human element is not entirely forgotten.

Molly Howe

Liverpool