French court orders Twitter to reveal racists' details

By Patrick Jackson BBC News

The IEJF threatened to launch legal action over the flood of messages

A French court has ordered Twitter to hand over details of users who spread anti-Semitic messages, months after offensive tweets were removed.

The Paris high court issued the order to the popular US micro-blogging site at the request of the French Jewish students' union (UEJF) and others.

Anti-Semitism groups hope to identify the users and have them prosecuted.

A spokesperson for Twitter told the BBC News website: "We are currently reviewing the court's decision."

In October, the site agreed to remove French tweets circulating with the hash tag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew) after the UEJF successfully argued that numerous messages had breached French law prohibiting incitement to racial hatred.

The hash tag continued to circulate on Thursday with offensive messages.

Twitter, its spokesperson pointed out, does not monitor content, but reviews reports of content that may be illegal or against its policies, as it comes in.

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