Twitter Sued For $50M Of Withholding Identity of Anti-Semitic Users

Twitter sued for $50 million in France for allegedly withholding the identities of anti-Semitic users.

The entire lawsuit is based on an incident that spans over a five month period. Back in October, 2012 the hashtag #unbonjuif- in English means "Good Jew" had been used to post offensive jokes and photos.

Twitter removed the offensive tweets after strong backlash, however refused to release the identities of the uses that had posted offensive messages under the hashtag, in hope the users to be prosecuted under France's anti-hate speech laws.

Twitter failed to respond to the Union of French Jewish Students summons that was filed in November 2012, and January a court ordered the company to provide the identities of the users. Twitter passed the two weeks to comply and now UEJF is seeking suing for $50 million for failure to adhere to the court order.

UEJF president, Jonathan Hayoun, said that Twitter is now an "accomplice and offering a highway for racists and anti-Semites."

Company spokesman Jim Prosser said: "We've been in continual discussions with UEJF. As this new filing shows, they are sadly more interested in grandstanding than taking the proper international legal path for this data. We filed our appeal yesterday, and would have filed it sooner if not for UEJF's intentional delay in processing the court's decision."

Twitter has been known to delete controversy posts and user accounts, however extremely concerned to hand over users' details in any case, for fear that users would shy away from the social media site worried that their privacy could be breached.