Twitter faces legal battle over failure to remove anti-semitic tweets

Twitter is currently involved in a legal battle that can potentially be a turning point in establishing stricter standards regarding the scrutiny of online antisemitism.

In January, HateAid, a German organization advocating for human rights in the digital realm, along with the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), alerted Twitter to six tweets containing antisemitic or racist content. Despite these tweets violating Twitter’s moderation policy, the social media giant did not remove them. Twitter claimed that three of them did not violate its guidelines and neglected to address the other reports, as stated in the legal action against them. HateAid and the EUJS took the matter to a Berlin court seeking the deletion of the offensive tweets. They argued that these tweets breached German law and Twitter had failed to fulfil its contractual obligations of providing users with a secure and safe environment.

Research conducted by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) earlier this year revealed a significant and sustained increase in antisemitic posts on Twitter since Musk acquired the platform. The volume of English-language antisemitic tweets more than doubled during this period. As part of his restructuring, Musk dissolved Twitter’s independent Trust and Safety Council, which advised combating harmful activity on the platform.