Twitter is coming under increasing pressure from the French government over homophobic, racist and anti-semitic tweets which Paris says contravene its laws on hate-speech, reports The Guardian.
French ministers are in talks with officials from the US-based microblogging site over how to deal with concerns from anti-discrimination and equality groups in France.
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.
The debate comes after spate of offensive hashtags trended among the most popular in France in recent months. 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 a court case in Paris this week, a French Jewish student union, backed by the country's biggest anti-racism groups, appealed to a judge to force Twitter to hand over personal details of users who had tweeted anti-semitic comments under the hashtags #UnBonJuif (a good Jew) and #UnJuifMort (a dead Jew), so the users could be prosecuted.
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. She said Twitter's data on users was collected and stocked in California and French law could not be applied. She said the only way the site could be forced to hand over details would be if the French justice system appealed to American judges to push for the data.
"We're not fleeing our responsibility. Our concern is not to violate American law in cooperating with the French justice system. Our data is stored in the US, so we must obey the rule of law in that country," she said, adding that Twitter had no obligation to hand over data in France. A Paris judge will rule on the case on 24 January.
Meanwhile, the ongoing row over offensive tweets has highlighted the gap between the American right to freedom of expression enjoyed by the San Francisco-based site, which is not responsible for content, and European laws on hate speech.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.