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Twitter Sued For $50M For Refusing To Identify Anti-Semitic Users

Posted by Soulskill on from the feeding-the-trolls dept.

redletterdave writes "After a French civil court ruled on Jan. 24 that Twitter must identify anyone who broke France's hate speech laws, Twitter has since refused to identify the users behind a handful of hateful and anti-Semitic messages, resulting in a $50 million lawsuit. Twitter argues it only needs to comply with U.S. laws and is thus protected by the full scope of the First Amendment and its free speech privileges, but France believes its Internet users should be subject to the country's tighter laws against racist and hateful forms of expression."

11 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I've been waiting for this... by iamhassi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is an internet company responsible to the country that it operates from, or is it responsible to every country that they can be reached from?

    The second would be a remarkably scary result.

    This stuff has already gone to court. Google execs were charged with crimes in italy for YouTube videos showing bullying. Google ignored it and Italy couldn't do anything. If Internet was ruled by every law in every country then it wouldn't exist. Sorry France you lose.

    --
    my karma will be here long after I'm gone
  2. In other news... by srussia · · Score: 5, Funny

    France's nuclear power infrastructure can now be decommissioned, as they have coupled all the turbine generators to Voltaire's grave.

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
    1. Re:In other news... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

      Given that it's Voltaire we're talking about, perhaps it would have sufficed to just connect the electrodes...but I'll be candid with you, regarding your optimism, are you sure they'd also get the necessary amperage?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  3. I'm not surprised that this didn't happen sooner.. by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After all most countries in the EU have similar law, Canada has similar laws(still) since the bill to strike down various parts of the hate speech laws are still stuck in the senate. The US is the odd ball out. Remember the next time someone starts screaming that hate speech laws are a good idea, they're not. This is spoken by someone who already lives under them. You have no "freedom of expression," you have limited expression as deemed by the government in a very and exceptionally narrowing scope as deemed by unelected bureaucrats in HRC's(human rights councils) who run tribunals outside the court system.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  4. Re:I've been waiting for this... by qwe4rty · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or he is from Australia and a their upside is equivalent to a northern hemisphere downside.

  5. Re:I've been waiting for this... by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is an internet company responsible to the country that it operates from, or is it responsible to every country that they can be reached from?

    The second would be a remarkably scary result.

    This stuff has already gone to court. Google execs were charged with crimes in italy for YouTube videos showing bullying. Google ignored it and Italy couldn't do anything. If Internet was ruled by every law in every country then it wouldn't exist. Sorry France you lose.

    I think Italy arrested a few Google execs from Google Italy, which wouldn't be as scary - in which case as long as Twitter has no French connections (no servers, etc) then France can't do anything. If they do, France can go after the French company.

    (Which is basically OP's point 1 - since the company has operations in various countries, they have to comply with the law, but only in those countries).

    At the very worst, if a twitter exec was passing through France, they could potentially be arrested until the fine is paid for, I suppose.

    Since I don't think Twitter has any assets or anything in France, the French government can't do a thing unless they can convince the rest of the EU that it's worth pursuing through other EU assets. Maybe. They can also arrest any twitter exec passing through France, I suppose - the US does it.

    Of course, this would mean that while Twitter is protected by US laws, it's also subject to the whims of the US government, including those ones on copyright infringement and such.

  6. Re:I've been waiting for this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The internet is "ruled" by whatever rules the host country allows (or is unable to fend off). In the case of Italy going after Google, the USA is the host country, and Google knows that it has nothing to fear because Italy doesn't have the ability to force the USA to hand anyone over for something that isn't a crime in the USA.

    But then on the flip side, you've got the USA going after people in the UK, New Zealand, etc, and succeeding despite the fact that no laws were broken in the host country because, this time around, the country doing the prosecuting does have the ability to force the host country to be its bitch.

  7. Re:I've been waiting for this... by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At that point, it almost sounds like kidnapping for ransom...

  8. Re:I've been waiting for this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dear AC,

    You shall not talk about France that way. Identify yourself or deal with the full wrath and power of the French.

  9. Re:I've been waiting for this... by KZigurs · · Score: 5, Informative

    USA has been doing this for decades... Especially with online gaming companies that might not even serve US customers.

  10. Re:I've been waiting for this... by girlinatrainingbra · · Score: 5, Informative
    Hey, it's already happened here in the USA for Dmitry Sklyarov when he came to the USA to give a presentation. Look at the details at U.S. v. ElcomSoft and Skylarov The case raised some concerns particularly since it involved an individual being prosecuted for activities that were fully legal in the country where they occurred.

    So Twitteronians doing twiittery things that are all legal in teh USA could get stopped, frisked, arrested, and jailed for having done things that are deemed to be illegal elsewhere in this great wide world. :>(