May 11, 2011
Internet
A group of anti-discrimination leg Twitter for France hold fire, demanding that social media sites will disclose the identity of a small number of users who posted anti-Semitic tweet hashtag trends over the life of the race- charged back in October.
French Jewish Students Union (UEJF) filed a summons against Twitter, hoping that the company will submit the user so that they can be prosecuted by the local anti-hate speech laws.
Tweet in question is Coming to a particular hashtag that trended on the site a little over a month ago. # Unbonjuif, which translated into English means “a good Jew” led some Twitter users to post photos of inflammation, Holocaust jokes, and other bad message. For example, a Twitter user posted a picture dustpan unbonjuif side # hashtag – obviously offensive.
After pressure from UEJF, Twitter agreed to delete tweets themselves, as well as to remove the tweets containing the hashtag another controversial push the same tweet about Muslims.
“Twitter does not mediate content. If we do not know the content that may violate our terms of service, we investigate every report and respond in accordance with the policies and procedures outlined on our support, “Twitter said in a statement. But the action is seen as mediating the content of some, although the term Twitter is clearly giving the company the right to remove content you want, really.
“We reserve the right at all times (but not the obligation) to remove or refuse to distribute any content on the service,” said Twitter in their TOS. They also expressed the Twitter user “can not use our services for illegal purposes or in furtherance of illegal activity. International users agree to comply with all local laws regarding online conduct and apply acceptable content. ‘
Apparently, removing the offending tweets were not enough. UEJF want to hold them accountable, and they want to help Twitter.
Twitter, which served their strong support for freedom of speech and the protection of user privacy in the past, also made some decisions have not been thrown into question recent commitment (at least in the eyes of the activists freedom of speech). Back in September, Twitter finally surrendered to the Manhattan DA office and handed over the old, tweets can be accessed from the occupy Wall Street protesters. To be fair to Twitter, they struggled mightily, only to give up when facing a hefty fine.
Back in January, Twitter also gives them the ability to censor local content. “We gave ourselves the ability to withstand reactive content of users in a specific country – while available worldwide. We have also developed a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why, “they said.
It took nearly nine months of Twitter to use the ability, when at that time they block the account of neo-Nazis in Germany alone, leaving it accessible worldwide. In the case of # unbonjuif tweets, Twitter is not censoring local tactics – they just pull them from the site altogether.