Jewish Students in Germany sue Twitter for not Removing Anti-Semitic Content

A number of Jewish students in Germany sued Twitter. (photo: twitter @EUJS)

JAKARTA - A group of Jewish students and an anti-hate speech association have filed a lawsuit against Twitter in a German court, on Wednesday, January 25. In that lawsuit, they argued that the company led by Elon Musk did not remove anti-Semitic content.

The European Union for Jewish Students (EUJS) and HateAid criticized what they described as a lack of moderation on Twitter regarding content that could incite hate.

We are suing @Twitter!

Today, @EUJS and @HateAid announced that we are suing Twitter for neglecting to remove reported hateful content from its platform which seeks incitement of the people.

It is time to hold social media platforms responsible.#TwitterTrial pic.twitter.com/ZqD4tbuLZ3

— EUJS - European Union of Jewish Students (@EUJS) January 25, 2023

The lawsuit, filed in a Berlin court, concerns six posts the group said were anti-Semitic but were not removed despite being reported. "In one case, the removal of a post explicitly denying the Holocaust was rejected," the group said, as quoted by Reuters.

Holocaust denial itself is considered a crime in Germany.

In a statement, HateAid and EUJS said they were trying to determine whether Twitter users had the legal right to enforce Twitter's terms and conditions, such as not tolerating hateful threats and behavior.

Twitter itself did not immediately return a request for comment from Reuters on the lawsuit.