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| Chilling Effects Clearinghouse > Court Orders > Weather Reports > Twitter Turns Over Account Names Behind Anti-Semitic Tweets | 
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|  Twitter Turns Over Account Names Behind Anti-Semitic TweetsLiz Woolery, July 16, 2013 Abstract: Following a long and increasingly expensive legal battle, on Friday Twitter agreed to turn over the account names behind a series of anti-Semitic tweets. The tweets at issue used the hashtag #UnBonJuif ("A Good Jew") alongside anti-Semitic and anti-Israel tweets from multiple account holders last fall. Following a long and increasingly expensive legal battle, on Friday Twitter agreed to turn over the account names behind a series of anti-Semitic tweets. The tweets at issue used the hashtag #UnBonJuif ("A Good Jew") alongside anti-Semitic and anti-Israel tweets from multiple account holders last fall. A Jewish group, Union des Etudiants Juifs de France (the French Union of Jewish Students) claimed the tweets were racist and discriminatory hate speech, in violation of French law, and demanded that Twitter remove the tweets and turn over information about the account holders. Despite a history of stands against censorship, Twitter agreed to remove the tweets. However, UEJF and several other groups said that was not enough, and wanted Twitter to turn over information about the account holders. In January 2013 Twitter was ordered to disclose the account holders' names, but refused to do so. In March UEJF sued Twitter, saying that the company had failed to comply with the court order and demanding that the company turn over information about the account holders behind the tweets. UEJF sued for 38.5 million Euros ($49.96 million) -- on top of the 1,000 Euro ($1,298) per day fines Twitter already was incurring as a result of refusing to comply with the court order. Twitter's apparent resolve, however, crumbled last week when the organization announced that it was turning over information about the accounts to a French prosecutor. According to the New York Times, Twitter issued a statement on Friday explaining its decision to comply with the court order: "in response to a valid legal request, Twitter has provided the prosecutor of Paris, Presse et Libertes Publiques section of the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance, with data that may enable the identification of certain users that the Vice-Prosecutor believes have violated French law." Though 140 characters may not be a lot, Twitter has nonetheless received take-down notices from Russia, Germany, Netherlands, France, Japan and India in recent years. Twitter's release of the account holder information somewhat flies in the face of its previous efforts to limit censorship and chilling of speech on the social network. In an effort to keep users around the globe aware of such threats to free speech on Twitter, the company began posting a semi-annual transparency report in July 2012. Data for the most recent quarters available, Q3-Q4 of 2012, indicates that Twitter received 12 requests for user information about 54 accounts from the French government. At the time of the report's publication, Twitter reported that it had complied with none of the requests. On the other hand, in that same quarter Twitter received a single request from French authorities asking that 44 tweets from 40 account holders be removed; Twitter reports that it complied with 100% of the request.
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