Twitter blocks German neo-nazi account
The group behind the profile is under criminal investigation
Screen-shot of the neo-nazi account | TWITTER
For the first time since the social site implemented its local censorship policy earlier this year, the blue bird has blocked a neo-Nazi account after the request of the German authorities.
"We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan (January)," Twitter's chief lawyer Alex Macgillivray said in a tweet. "We're using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany."
The new policy allows, among other things, to block content in specific countries if messages violate local laws. Therefore, tweets from @hannoverticker, which is run by the group Besseres Hannover, will not longer be visible in Germany, although the rest of the world will be able to view them.
Announcing the decision, Macgillivray tweeted: "Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly and transparently." Besides, he attached a link to the message from the police in the northern German state of Lower Saxony asking Twitter to block the account of Besseres Hannover, a far-right unit which was declared unlawful on September.
“The Ministry of the Interior of the State of Lower-Saxony in Germany has banned the organisation "Besseres Hannover", said the letter, adding that “all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately.”
Because it's under an investigation on suspicion of forming a criminal association, the Police Department asked “to close this account immediately and not to open any substitute accounts for the organisation.”
However, despite Twitter affirms this is the first time a user's account is banned under its new rules, is this actually true? In August, the social site restored an account from the journalist Guy Adams that had been blocked on 29 July, after posting critical messages about NBC's Olympics coverage.
The account was unavailable only during two days, but Twitter decided to apply its Trust & Safetyrules, which are the same that had banned the neo-nazi profile. NEW EUROPE ON LINE
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