Twitter blocks account of illegal German neo-Nazi group
Microblog blocks illegal far-right group in a global first,as Twitter tries to balance censorship concerns with hate speech laws
Microblogging site Twitter said it had blocked a neo-Nazi group's account at the request of German police, in what it called a global first for the company.
In a move pitting censorship concerns against laws on hate speech, Twitter yesterday said it had deployed the tool developed this year to comply with the request by the German authorities.
"We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan [January]," Twitter's chief lawyer Alex Macgillivray said in a tweet. "We're using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany."
In a separate tweet, Macgillivray posted a link to a letter from the police in the northern German state of Lower Saxony asking Twitter to block the account of Besseres Hannover, a far-right outfit which was outlawed last month.
The account is still visible on Twitter with the handle hannoverticker and calling itself "Das nationale Informationsportal aus Hannover" (The national information portal from Hanover). But no message since the date of the ban, September 25, is visible in Germany, and the group's website is blocked or deleted.
Prosecutors in Lower Saxony have launched a probe against about 20 members of Besseres Hannover on charges of inciting racial hatred and creating a criminal organisation.
The group is suspected of sending a link to a threatening video by e-mail to the state's social affairs minister, Aygul Ozkan, who is of Turkish origin.