I don’t agree with the author. Other forms of publication have no “right to erasure”; online publishing should be no different. Being able to check what a person has said about a topic is important in holding senior and public figures to account. And knowing that you might be judged by your online contributions might help to temper some of the vile and illogical comments that proliferate on the internet.

I do think, though, that as a society we should be more mature in allowing that people can change their minds on particular topics, or their ideas may develop, or they may at times have expressed themselves intemperately. We should also realise that social norms and values change, and comments that once would have been considered unexceptional are nowadays deemed offensive.