Twitter under fire in France
Twitter is coming under
increasing pressure from the French government over homophobic, racist and
anti-semitic tweets. The government has suggested Twitter should
actively fight against the publication of tweets containing hate-speech on its
platform in France, even though the ‘micro-blogging site
defends itself as a champion of free speech’. In recent times there has been a
trend of offensive hashtags in France ‘these included #SiMonFilsEstGay (If my
son was gay) – in which users speculated on the worst things they would inflict
on a gay relative – and #SiMaFilleRameneUnNoir (If my daughter brings home a
black man), #UnBonJuif (a good Jew) and #SiJetaisNazi (If I were a Nazi).’
The government argued that the content of many of these tweets was illegal
under French laws against publishing racist and discriminatory hate-speak.
In October, Twitter agreed to remove the offensive hashtags. But its lawyer,
Alexandra Neri, told the court that users' details would not be handed over.
My Opinion: Twitter has to
be monitored in some way or form as a result these offensive hashtags should
never be allowed to circulate the net. I know there are many active users on
twitter but ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’ and due to its popularity
it should be doing better to monitor tweets.
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