Anti-Semitic posts to be removed by Twitter

PARIS- Agence France-Presse

Guests attend the opening ceremony of a Jewish Center in Ukraine in this file photo. Twitter has removed anti-Semitic posts in French. REUTERS Photo

Twitter has agreed to remove French-language anti-Semitic messages that have flooded the micro-blogging site in recent days, after threats of legal action, a Jewish student union said Oct. 19.

The U.S. firm agreed to apply French law and remove offensive messages it is alerted to, said a lawyer for the UEJF union. Such tweets have been proliferating in France in recent days with the hashtag #unbonjuif (#AGoodJew).

 The hashtag, which in English means “a good Jew”, has been one of the top trending words on French-language tweets and is often followed by offensive comments such as: “A good Jew can pump up your tyre with his nose.” “There is a fire that we have to put out. We want to put an end to this outpouring of hatred,” the UEJF’s lawyer Stephane Lilti said.

The UEJF on Oct. 18 threatened to seek an injunction against Twitter to try to make it remove the offending tweets. Lilti told that his client had scored an “important victory” over Twitter, which did not immediately react to his statement.

Twitter on Oct. 18 said it had blocked a neo-Nazi group’s account at the request of German police. The move was the first time that the firm had applied a policy known as “country-withheld content” which allows it to block an account at the request of state authorities.