In Germany, two groups of activists sued Twitter. They claim the social network failed to remove six posts attacking Jews and denying the Holocaust after they were reported.
The posts were published after billionaire Elon Musk bought the platform in October 2022.
But his tweets, which now represent much of the company’s communications output, make no mention of the incident.
Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are illegal in Germany.
They also violate Twitter’s own terms and conditions.
“Content that promotes hate”
“Twitter has betrayed our trust,” said Avital Greenberg, president of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), which filed the civil suit along with HateAid.
“By allowing the distribution of hostile content, the company is failing to protect its users — and Jews in particular.”
The case will seek to determine whether Twitter is contractually obligated to remove such material.
HateAid legal director Josephine Ballon said: “Twitter says it will not tolerate violence on its platform. Users should be able to rely on it.”
Big fines
In 2021, before Musk bought Twitter, the Campaign Against Antisemitism, with which it worked, said the company’s policies were failing — and it had removed only 400 of 1,000 tweets that contained hateful content attacking Jews.
Twitter was criticized last year for being too slow to remove tweets from British musician Wiley, which he later apologized for, saying they were “considered anti-Semitic”.
Boris Johnson, the prime minister at the time, said social networks needed to “go further and faster to remove content like this”.
