The government has vowed to tackle online bullying through new laws that would compel social media giants to “unmask” anonymous trolls who make defamatory comments online.

It says the new laws would give victims the power to then sue those unmasked trolls for defamation.

The proposed laws also seek to circumvent a High Court ruling that found media companies are responsible as publishers for defamatory comments on their social media posts.

Under the new regime, a social media company would be legally responsible for the defamatory posts unless they revealed to the victim the identity of the trolls.

But critics say the laws would do little to tackle online bullying.

Today on Please Explain, legal affairs reporter Michaela Whitbourn joins Bianca Hall to discuss the proposals and how they could work in practice.