The German non-profit organization HateAid, together with the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), has filed a civil lawsuit against Twitter in the Berlin court. In it, they criticize the platform’s lack of moderation of hateful content.
What is it about?
The lawsuit concerns six anti-Semitic and illegal comments that have not been removed despite being reported. In one specific case of Holocaust denial, deletion was even explicitly rejected.
HateAid emphasizes that such a practice violates the platform’s Terms and Conditions (GTC). There, Twitter states that it does not want to tolerate hateful behavior and threats of violence.
In addition, Twitter’s abusive behavior policy states that it prohibits content “that denies that there has been a mass murder or other event involving numerous deaths and injuries”, which includes “events such as the Holocaust”.
The lawsuit should therefore determine whether users have a legal right to enforce the terms, HateAid writes in its press release. This would make it possible for them to sue for the removal of inflammatory content in the future. So far they have been at the mercy of an “arbitrary and non-transparent moderation practice”.
Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany — strict laws prohibit anti-Semitic hate speech, according to media reports.
Since Tesla boss Elon Musk took over Twitter at the end of October 2022, the number of employees has been drastically reduced. The austerity measures also affected the teams responsible for platform security and content moderation.
“Anyone who was persecuted at the time deserves a respectful memorial,” the 80-year-old Dutch woman said Friday at a memorial service in the German Bundestag for the victims of National Socialism.
In her emotional speech, Kats referred, among other things, to people who were persecuted by the National Socialists because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and who were the focus of the commemoration. Homosexuals were, among other things, persecuted en masse by the Nazis according to laws that were also in force in the Federal Republic for many decades.
Born in 1942 to a Jewish family, Kats survived the Holocaust with a married couple in Amsterdam, where she grew up under a false identity. Her biological family was murdered in Auschwitz.
In Auschwitz alone in Wehrmacht-occupied Poland, the SS murdered at least 1.1 million people, mostly Jews. About six million Jews across Europe fell victim to the Holocaust.
On January 27, 1945, Red Army soldiers liberated the survivors of the German concentration and extermination camp. Since 1996, the date has been celebrated in Germany as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Wreaths were laid in memory in many places this Friday. (sda)
Sources
- hateid.org: ‘Proceedings against Twitter: HateAid and EUJS realize principle process’
- techcrunch.com: Elon Musk’s Twitter hit with holocaust denial hate speech in Germany
(t-online/dsc)
Source: Watson
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
