France's Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) was won a significant legal victory against the messaging service Twitter when a court in Paris ruled in favor of its request to identify authors of anti-Semitic Twitter posts. The court ordered Twitter to turn over to the UEJF whatever data it has that could help identify the account holders who posted the tweets last October.
The judges also ordered Twitter to make it easier for users of its French website to report "illicit content" such as justifying crimes against humanity and incitement to racial hatred. If the company does not comply with the ruling within two weeks, it faces fines of €1,000 (US$ 1,336) per day. However, as the US-based Twitter has no personnel or offices in France it could choose to ignore the ruling without immediate consequences.
For months, the French-language twittersphere has been awash with racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic tweets, using the hashtags #UnBonJuif (A good Jew), #SiMonFilsEstGay (If my son is gay), and #SiMaFilleRamèneUnNoir (If my daughter brings home a black guy).
"We are not able to identify the individuals, only Twitter can do so," Sacha Reingewirtz, UEJF's vice president, told the French broadcaster, RFI."We have already tweeted the decision. And we see on Twitter that the ruling has apparently triggered a new rise of anti-Semitic messages directed against our organization. So there is still work to be done, both by us and Twitter, but we are happy that French judiciary is now changing the way it is."
