Imagine if the Herald had allowed racists to post vile remarks about England footballers on our pages and our website. The editor would have been fired before you could say penalty shootout. Newsquest UK would be facing sanctions from the government, prosecution, fines.
Yet on Sunday night, another news website was allowed to post hundreds of racist remarks on its pages with impunity. The abuse of the black England players was entirely predictable. Around a third of elite sportsmen and women suffer regular social media abuse, according to a recent BBC Sport survey.
The comments under this column are moderated before publication precisely to prevent any such thing from happening. If you want to make your feelings known about my scribblings you have to declare who you are. There is no cloak of anonymity.
The government keeps threatening to crackdown on social media companies if they don't take down racist tweets more rapidly. They are even asking for names of racist tweeters – though they must know that that will never happen because they are nearly all anonymous.
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