French Court Rules Twitter Must Reveal Authors of Racist Tweets

So that they can be prosecuted

A French court ruled Thursday that Twitter, which has steadfastly refused calls to police its millions of users, must hand over data to help identify the authors of racist or anti-Semitic tweets.

The ruling follows a legal complaint lodged in October by France's Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) which argued that numerous tweets had breached French law prohibiting incitement to racial hatred.

The union had been pressing Twitter to exercise tighter control of what appeared on its site following a deluge of anti-Semitic messages posted under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew).