Twitter hands over details of anti-Semitic tweeters

Twitter has handed over data to the French authorities to help identify the authors of anti-Semitic tweets following legal action by a Jewish students' group.

A ceremony paying tribute to the victims of Toulouse killer Mohammed Merah in a Paris synagogue last year AFP

The micro-blogging site announced Friday that it had given legal officials “data that could

lead to the identification of certain authors” of anti-Semitic tweets.

A French court in January ordered the company to provide the data after a legal
complaint from France's Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) and last month ruled that it had not complied.

The move “ends the legal dispute” with the UEJF, a Twitter statement said, adding that the two parties have “agreed to actively pursue their collaboration so as to fight racism and anti-Semitism according to respective national legislation”.

Four anti-racist groups also backed the legal action.

One of them, Mrap, told RFI that it agreed with the UEJF's accord with Twitter.