The Paris appeals court ruled on Thursday that Twitter must divulge details about what it does to combat hate speech online in France, giving advocacy groups a victory that the social network does not do enough to combat nasty content.
The judgement upheld a lower court decision ordering Twitter to produce information on the number, country, localization, and spoken language of persons employed to filter content on the French version of the network.
According to a copy of the judgement, the appeals court confirmed the initial ruling in its entirety and ordered Twitter to pay 1,500 euros in damages to each of the six claimants.
The lower court order also required Twitter to provide any contractual, administrative, commercial, or technical records that might assist in determining the financial and human resources it has put in place to combat hate speech online in France.
“Our top priority is to ensure the safety of the people using our platform,” A Twitter spokesperson said in response to a request for comment.
According to Ilana Soskin, a lawyer for one of the claimants, the advocacy organisation J’Accuse! (I Accuse! ), Twitter “could not flout French law and mock everyone.”
“It must comply,” she told.
Technology companies have been accused of doing too little to combat internet harassment.
Last May, the United Kingdom announced a new law that would pay social media corporations up to 10% of their annual revenue or £18 million ($25 million) if they failed to combat online abuses such as racial hate crimes, while senior executives may face criminal charges.
