In its renewed efforts to limit hate speech on the Internet, Twitter has blocked users in Germany from viewing a neo-Nazi account at the request of the German government.
The microblogging website was under severe public criticism for its refusal to restrict the anti-Semitic tweets in France recently and now for the first time in its history, it blocked access to a Twitter account belonging to an organization known as "Besseres Hannover," which means "Better Hannover" in English. Public expression of Nazi news is a punishable offense in Germany.
Using its "country-withheld content" policy that was announced in January, Twitter blocked the account named Besseres Hannover which was earlier banned by the German state of Lower Saxony for spreading nationalist socialist ideology and undermining free democracy.
"We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan. We're using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany," Twitter's counsel Alexander Macgillivray tweeted. "Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly & transparently."
The group used the San Francisco-based microblogging website for racist and anti-democratic propaganda. The German police had confiscated computers, far-right paraphernalia and weapons during the raids on the Better Hannover offices.
Twitter's official counsel had tweeted a letter from the Hannover police which said "the group has been disbanded, its assets are seized and all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately. The Public Prosecutor (State Attorney's Office) has launched an investigation on suspicion of forming a criminal association."
Despite being widely criticised for its liberal approach on the content, the company had been reluctant to implement a tight screening of the tweets; however, with the increased amount of hate speech on the web, Twitter has at last agreed to set some acceptable boundaries.