NO - ROBIN SHEPHERD

True defenders of free speech will have mixed feelings about recent discussions over social media’s responsibility to police “hate speech”, made ever more relevant by last week’s ruling against Twitter by the Grand Instance Court in Paris.

The Israeli FA and public opinion in the country have come down heavily against Beitar Jerusalem’s racist fans who reacted angrily to club owner Arkady Gaydamak’s decision to sign two Chechen Muslim players.

No Arab has ever played for Beitar and the only Muslim ever to play for the side, a Nigerian defender who arrived in 2004, left after two months.

Out of a record 480 reported hate crimes in Malmo between 2010 and 2011, only 16 led to an indictment and none led to a conviction, according to statistics from the Swedish Crime Prevention Council. None of the 44 antisemitic hate crimes reported in Malmo in the two-year period even made it to a prosecutor.

Antisemitic messages and offensive remarks are being posted on social networking site Twitter in France as part of a "concerning" new trend.

The president of the Union of French Jewish Students urged Twitter to improve its moderation system after French users of the site began competing with each other to post messages under the hashtag #unbonjuif.

A man has been charged over an abusive Twitter message sent to former Portsmouth defender Tal Ben Haim.

The tweet was sent to the Israeli footballer earlier this month. Its exact contents are not available, but it reportedly has racist content.

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has reacted angrily to the hip-hop record chief Russell Simmons’s accusation that his behaviour towards African-Americans was similar to that of Louis Farrakhan’s towards Jews.