Twitter hands over data in French anti-Semitism case

PARIS, France – Twitter said Friday, July 12, it had handed over data to French authorities to help identify the authors of anti-Semitic tweets, following a complaint from a Jewish students’ group.

A French court in January ordered the company to provide the data after legal action by France’s Union of Jewish Students (UEJF).

Twitter said in a statement that it had given information to judicial authorities “enabling the identification of some authors” of anti-Semitic tweets.

It said the move “puts an end to the dispute” with the UEJF and that the two parties had “agreed to continue to work actively together in order to fight racism and anti-Semitism”.

The EUJF had launched a civil suit against Twitter in March claiming 38.5 million euros ($50 million) in damages over the global networking site’s failure to respond to the French court order. The group said it would hand over any damages won in court to the Shoah Memorial fund.

The union has been pressing Twitter to exercise tighter control following a deluge of anti-Semitic messages last year posted under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew). Twitter later removed some of the offending tweets. – Rappler.com