By taking to Twitter, Elon Musk posed as an “absolute defender of free speech”, but how far? On January 25, the anti-hate speech organization HateAid and a European Jewish Student Group (EUJS) filed a lawsuit against Twitter in the Berlin Regional Court. The purpose of this is to force the platform to remove antisemitic content and clarify its actions in terms of moderation.
The lawsuit targets in particular messages that deny the Holocaust, which is considered a crime in Germany (as it is in France). The two organizations claim that Twitter does not enforce its own rules against anti-Semitic content.
In filing this lawsuit, HateAid and EUJS explain in a statement that they seek to know whether users have the right to simply enforce moderation rules as part of their “contract” with Twitter and sue if necessary. “Until now, users have been at the mercy of an arbitrary and transparent moderation practice,” the statement said.
Not a “proper” answer
The two organizations cite an example: of the six Holocaust-denying tweets, none were removed. Both groups also rely on a report from the Center to Counter Digital Hate published in 2021. This study reports that Twitter followed up on 11% of the 137 antisemitic tweets reported on the platform.
“Current studies show that 84% of posts containing antisemitic speech have not been reviewed by the platforms. […] which means that Twitter knows that Jews are publicly attacked every day and that anti-Semitism is becoming normal in our society. And that the platform’s response is not adequate at all”, the two organizations believe.
On the Twitter side, Elon Musk said that the platform would respect all the laws of the countries where it operates, particularly those of the European Union. Twitter has also heavily cut content moderation staff during various waves of layoffs.
Twitter has also been the subject of legal proceedings in France for the same reasons, from various anti-racist organizations. In January 2022, the French court had condemned the platform for publicly detailing its means of moderation, in particular to fight anti-Semitism. A decision that has never been implemented.
Source: BFM TV
