Twitter Sued For $50M For Withholding Anti-Semitic Data


Pentametron

Twitter is being sued for $50M by a group in France that is angry about the company protecting a group of anti-Semitic users.

The case centers around the hashtag #unbonjuif, which means “good Jew” in English. A group of anonymous users popularized the hashtag back in October, 2012 with a series of anti-semitic jokes. Twitter has removed the offensive Tweets but it has also refused to release the identities of the users despite a court order.

The Union of French Jewish Students filed a summons against Twitter back in November of 2012 and a court ruled that Twitter had to provide information about the anti-Semitic group so that police could have them arrested for hate speech. Twitter was given two weeks to comply but reportedly never sent UEJF any information about the users.

Now, UEJF is suing the company for $50 million.

UEJF president, Jonathan Hayoun, said that Twitter is now an “accomplice and offering a highway for racists and anti-Semites.”

Twitter argues that it does not have to provide the UEJF with any information because the company is based in the United States and is protected by the first amendment. The company also said that UEJF is “grandstanding” and that they did not allow Twitter the proper time to file an appeal.

Company spokesman Jim Prosser said: “We’ve been in continual discussions with UEJF. As this new filing shows, they are sadly more interested in grandstanding than taking the proper international legal path for this data. We filed our appeal yesterday, and would have filed it sooner if not for UEJF’s intentional delay in processing the court’s decision.”

What do you think? Is Twitter protecting a group of anti-Semites or fighting for internet privacy?


Kossi

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