French court orders Twitter to reveal details of users posting anti-Semitism
Published January 24, 2013
(JTA) — A French tribunal has ordered Twitter to divulge details about French users who posted anti-Semitic messages.
Thursday’s ruling by a judge of Paris’ Grand Instance Court came in response to a lawsuit by the Union of French Jewish Students, which sought to limit the impunity with which Twitter users may disseminate anti-Semitic incitement.
“It is a major precedent and breakthrough in the attempt to balance privacy online with the need to combat hate speech,” Sacha Reingewirtz, vice president of the Union of French Jewish Students, told JTA.
The court, he added, imposed a pending fine of $1,300 against Twitter for every day in which it fails to deliver whatever details it possesses on users who are suspected of disseminating hate speech on Twitter. The ruling, Reingewirtz said, applies only to people who did so in France.
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