LIKE many of you, I enjoy using social media. It throws up some surprises.

As I write, a video of my cat Rojo has been viewed 1.1million time in Japan.

He photobombed a virtual parliament session this week, flicking his tail with nonchalance as I questioned an ITV executive about children's television.

The video of me asking him to put down his tail has gone viral. I think it's fair to say that Rojo is now big in Japan. Thank you. I'll get my coat.

But before I do, it's worth, perhaps, pausing to ponder the downsides as well as the fun upsides of social media.

As a member of the Commons Digital and Culture Committee I've been taking evidence for some months on disinformation online.

Everyone has heard about Vladimir Putin's attempts to influence the results of the last American presidential election. But, it seems, the Russian regime has been very active here too.

The experts tell us perhaps five percent of Scottish Twitter accounts are fake. They're called bots.

When they're first set up, they're electronic. But if they gain traction they're upgraded to human form – Pinnochio97350526 becomes a real Twitter man.

There's little doubt they interfered in the Brexit referendum to help the pro-Brexit camp. And the bots can always be found where there's tragedy, doing their best to sow discord.

When the London bombings happened, they faked up pictures purporting to show Muslim Londoners ignoring the victims.

Boris Johnson dismissed this as "Bermuda Triangle stuff" during the last General Election. Unfortunately for him, the Commons Intelligence Committee had commissioned a report into Russian interference in our democratic processes and it looks likely to reveal that it's all too real.

And worse – the report may conclude that UK ministers knew about this interference and did nothing to tackle it.

Instead, it seems they've done everything possible to suppress the report. First, Boris Johnson deselected the Intelligence Committee chair, Dominic Grieve, which meant he wasn't allowed to stand again as a Tory MP.

Then, following his General Election win, the prime minister refused to allow a new Intelligence Committee to sit. If it couldn't sit, it couldn't publish its Russia report.

And finally when the delay was becoming embarrassing, the committee was appointed with a new compliant chair selected by number 10.

Intelligence Committee members weren't having it. They appointed their own choice for chair, Tory backbencher Dr Julian Lewis who announced the Russian Report would be published immediately.

The scream of thwarted rage from no 10 could be heard in Alloa. The prime minister's petulant response? He removed the Conservative whip from Julian Lewis.

This seems to me both petty and counterproductive. As a newly independent MP, Boris Johnson's whips now have no hold over him. And the PM has yet another enemy in parliament of which there are no shortage on the Tory benches.

Boris Johnson does seem to be going to a lot of trouble to hide the location of the Bermuda Triangle.