THE rise of online abuse aimed at politicians is a “real threat to democracy”, campaigners have warned.

Concerns have been raised that attacks and threats on social media are deterring people – particularly women – from participating in politics.

The warning follows a poll which found a third of MSPs have received a death threat since being elected.

The survey, by Holyrood Magazine, also found over two thirds of MSPs said they had feared for their safety since taking up the role – rising to almost nine in 10 for female MSPs.

Anum Qaisar-Javed, 28, who has previously been an SNP candidate and is seeking selection for the Holyrood election, said the issue has become worse.

“Over the last three to five years there has been a big change in how we campaign and share information with one another,” she said.

“In 2016, I don’t remember being as much on social media as I am now.

“When you are on the doorstep, there is abuse you get, that is a given, but I think at that point it was specifically because of the party, rather than me being female or a woman of colour.

“In the last year or so there has definitely been a surge on social media.”

Talat Yaqoob, co-founder of Women 50:50, which campaigns for equal representation of women in parliament and councils, said there were now better systems for reporting abuse, but it did not always work.

She said: “There are many times when I have reported abuse – such as people saying ‘go back to where you come from’, clear violent racism or misogyny – and Twitter has come back to say this has not contravened our community standards. What else needs to happen?”

Yaqoob argued social media companies had to take stronger – and swifter – action to tackle such messages.

She said political parties also needed to ensure better reporting mechanisms for abuse, whether it takes place online or in situations such as branch meetings, and to follow that up with “thorough” investigations.

“The problem is the longer that tweet of abuse stays up and is retweeted by others – that period is legitimising what is said,” she said.

“That galvanises hate from other places and other people – so we have to get better at the reaction times, whether it is a political party calling it out or certain social media doing something about it.”

She added: “The reality is we are at the point now where social media abuse is having an impact on democratic participation.”

Last week a man was charged with sending threatening emails to MPs, with alleged victims including former commons speaker John Bercow, former LibDem leader Jo Swinson and SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry has been forced to up her security in recent weeks, with a man charged over a threat allegedly sent to her on the same day she was axed from the party’s Westminster front bench.

In an interview earlier this month Cherry said she would never have got involved in frontline politics had she known “the level of abuse and threats” she would receive from within her own party.

Zainab Asunramu, project co-ordinator at The Parliament Project, which works to support women entering politics, said online abuse against women is a cause for concern for many participants in its workshops and programmes.

She said: “It is also a specific cause of concern for women from under-represented backgrounds who tend to live at the intersection of different identities.

“At the moment there seems to be high attention on women MPs and MSPs facing abuse, but local politicians are also seeing an increase in online abuse. This issue is a real threat to our whole democracy, and it needs to be addressed with legislation.”

Asunramu said the UK Government’s Online Harms Bill – which is due to be brought before Parliament this year – should take into account the experiences of all women in political office.

The shocking murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in a street in West Yorkshire in 2016 led to the setting up of a foundation in her name, aimed at building a more compassionate and tolerant society.

Former home secretary Jacqui Smith, chair of The Jo Cox Foundation, said individuals had to take responsibility for their comments and remember “politicians are human beings”.

“It’s easy to be nice to people you agree with. The fundamental challenge in a democracy is to treat people you disagree with in a decent way as well,” she said. “And politicians have a responsibility too, so we’re working with the Committee on Standards in Public Life on a statement of the kind of behaviour we expect from political parties and their members and hope to get all parties signed up before the May elections.”

A spokesperson for Facebook said: “We continually invest in technology and expertise to better prevent hate speech, bullying and intimidation of public figures on our platform. In 2019, we took action to prevent gendered cursing and it is now removed for public figures if they are purposefully exposed to this.

“Our Community Standards make clear we will remove hate speech or credible threats of any kind and we have a safety and security team of over 35,000 people to enforce this.”

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.