Social media is a bad feelings machine. Why can’t we just turn it off for good? | Sirin Kale

I owe my career to Twitter, but two years reporting on the pandemic has made me realise disinformation costs lives

I have a fantasy and it goes like this: a political party is formed, running on an anti-social-media platform. It campaigns on a pledge to ban social media. (SWITCH IT OFF" is its straightforward, and elegant, slogan.)

The party wins a general election and at midnight, on what comes to be known as Social Media Freedom Day, the prime minister pushes a giant button that blocks all access to social media. Crowds cheer. On the anniversary of Social Media Freedom Day - which becomes a bank holiday, of course - children burn effigies of Mark Zuckerberg and dress up as the Twitter bird.

Sirin Kale is a Guardian journalist