The controversial new unit will hunt down trolls on social media

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The Metropolitan Police will now scour the internet to track down trolls with the help of an army of volunteers reporting anything they deem offensive or inappropriate on Facebook or Twitter.

The cyber-unit will be run by five detectives and will cost £1.7million.

The detectives will be tasked with “identifying the location of the crime” when online abuse is spotted and refer it to “the appropriate force area and social media providers”.