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Twitter to hand over data on people posting anti-Semitic tweets with hashtag 'a good Jew'

By Mark Leiser, Research Fellow

July 16, 2013 | 3 min read

Social media giant Twitter has announced that it would hand over data identifying certain users who posted anti-Semitic tweets under the hashtag, “unbonjuif” (a good Jew). The settlement comes as Twitter faced increasing pressure from the French government and numerous lawsuits. A Jewish student group called the UEJF filed a summons claiming the tweets violated French hate speech laws and asking the court to force Twitter to disclose their authors. The hashtag, which translates as "a good Jew," trended on Twitter last fall as users published a racist torrent against Jews and Israel.

The case raises an interesting point about how social media platforms often turn into battlegrounds for people guarding the rights of privacy and free expression with cultural crimes in local jurisdictions. Twitter has legal obligations in jurisdictions in which it operates, and therefore, has obligations to behave in a corporate socially responsible manner, mindful of different community standards. The decision to release the data may be problematic for Twitter as it has made “protecting the user’s voice” and free speech principles a fundamental part of Twitter’s appeal. In a blogpost, Twitter pointed out that France and Germany already restrict pro-Nazi content, yet under the US’s First Amendment, tweets with such view would be legal in the US while illegal in those countries.The dispute started after a viral movement on Twitter using the hashtag “unbonjuif” (a good jew) in November 2012. Following the precedent set by Yahoo’s removal of nazi memorabilia on the French version of its portal, Twitter removed the tweets and the UEJF asked the Tribunal de Grande Instance to issue an order requiring Twitter to disclose the account holders or face a fine of €1000 per day that it doesn’t disclose the names. Twitter responded by saying it was reviewing legal options, but earlier in the same month had asserted that it would need an order from a US court before it would, or could, disclose such personal details. This seems to be a significant departure from Twitter’s approach in the past. For example, during anti-austerity protests under the #OccupyWallStreet hashtag, a single tweet appeared to encourage protesters “to kill a cop or two”. The NYPD demanded access to the account details of the person who sent the Tweet. After being ordered to hand over the details, Twitter appealed the order arguing Malcolm Harris’s (the sender) tweets are protected by the Fourth Amendment “because the government admits that it cannot publicly access them, thus establishing that Defendant maintains a reasonable expectation of privacy in his communications.”The cases raises significant jurisdictional issues for Twitter who has to balance the free speech rights of the United States and an equal duty to the people of France to restrict expression that is seen as an affront to their own national identity and values. Twitter, in a statement, said it will "actively continue contributing to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism," adding that it will take measures to "improve the accessibility of the reporting procedure of illegal Tweets." The case will no doubt also alarm privacy advocates who are already reeling over the government accessing user information under the auspices of PRISM program in the USA and Operation TEMPORA by GCHQ in the UK.

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