PARIS (AP) — Twitter has given French authorities information that can help identify the authors of a series of racist and anti-Semitic tweets that carried French hashtags, and the social media site also has agreed to work with a Jewish student group that sued for the data on other ways to fight hate speech.
The president of the Union of Jewish Students of France said Saturday that his organization, known as UEJF, was withdrawing a $50 million lawsuit against San Francisco-based Twitter Inc., which was originally filed as a means to pressure the company to comply and "end Twitter's indifference."
"We got Twitter to respect the laws of our country," Jonathan Hayoun said in a telephone interview. Propagating racial and anti-Semitic hatred is against French law.
Twitter's policies require international users to comply with local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and the social network's free-wheeling style has in the past been stymied by European legislation. For instance, Germany restricts the use of Nazi-related symbols and slogans, such as the swastika or the phrase "Heil Hitler." Twitter blocked a neo-Nazi account in Germany last October.