Twitter must identify racist, anti-Semitic posters, says French court

For months now, twittersphere French-language lit up with a rash of tweets racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic using the hashtags # UnBonJuif (a Jew), # SiMonFilsEstGay (if my son is gay), and # SiMaFilleRamèneUnNoir (if my daughter brings home a black guy).Last fall, under pressure from the French advocacy group Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), Twitter agreed to remove some offensive tweets. In October 2012, at the request of Berlin, also suspended Twitter account German neo-Nazi located in the city of Hanover, the first time that the company has such a government request.However, at the time, UEJF also information identifying the audience, Twitter not prepared to give up. So the group went to court to force the issue.On Thursday, the Court of First Instance ordered the Paris Grand Twitter to create the anti-Semitic authors tweets mechanism (Google Translate) of the French authorities to give notice "illegal content," the French site "in a visible and easily accessible [way]. "If Twitter does not comply within two weeks before the American company fines of € 1,000 ($ 1,336) per day.How should "free", "free speech"?This is not the first time that the courts of the French and butted heads laws more over online racism idiotic. Less than a year ago, then-president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a law that would make the site look even hate crimes.Here in the U.S., we have near-blanket protection constitutional right to free expression. While incitement to violence generally does not protect hate speech - no matter how disgusting and awful. As we reported before, the principle is generally operating in America should be talking undesirable to be countered with more speech not less.That's not the approach adopted in Europe, where hate speech is not protected most definitely. Many European Union (and even some non-EU countries in Europe) are different types of anti-hate speech law mechanisms, partial head off terrorism and far right violence."We are not able to identify the people, but Twitter can not do that," said Sacha Reingewirtz, UEJF Vice President, the French broadcaster RFI. "We have already tweeted the decision. And we see on Twitter that the decision drew like raising new anti-Semitic messages directed against our organization, so that the work still to be done, both in and Twitter, but we're happy that the French justice is now changing the way it is. "

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Google set for Brussels showdown

Image via CrunchBase

EU commissioner accuses internet search giant of giving undue prominence to its own services following complaints from rivals

Google faces an imminent battle with Joaquin Almunia after the EU competition chief said the company was 'abusing' its dominant position. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA

Brussels is moving towards a regulatory showdown with Google after the European commission's competition chief accused the company of diverting internet users to its own services.

Joaquín Almunia believes Google is giving undue prominence to its own services such as news, maps and shopping comparison, driving traffic to them to the detriment of rival websites. The EU is reiterating its tough stance despite a decision last week by US regulators not to impose changes on Google's search business.

Google prioritises paid-for search results, but its "natural" or unsponsored results are meant to be undistorted by financial interests and based on criteria such as the popularity or relevance of individual websites.

"We are still investigating, but my conviction is [Google] are diverting traffic," Almunia told the Financial Times. "They are monetising this kind of business, the strong position they have in the general search market and this is not only a dominant position, I think – I fear – there is an abuse of this dominant position."

His comments suggest Brussels will hold the line against Google, despite the US federal trade commission's decision last week not to impose sanctions.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt met Almunia before Christmas and will submit detailed proposals suggesting remedies by the end of January.

This could mark the first time that the US group has bowed to regulatory pressure to change its core search business.

The complaints against Google were brought by Microsoft, which has a rival search engine called Bing! and runs parts of Yahoo!'s search operations, and by travel websites Expedia and TripAdvisor, and British company Streetmap.

The commission said last May it had four main concerns, the first being possibly distorted "natural" search. The second fear is that Google copies content such as user reviews from competing services and uses it in its own offerings without permission.

"In this way they are appropriating the benefits of the investments of competitors," the commission stated.

The third fear is that Google forces other websites for which it sells and delivers search adverts to work with it exclusively.

The fourth relates to how easily search advertising campaigns booked via Google can be transferred to other platforms for search advertising.

Almunia said Google was taking a constructive approach but that Brussels would be "obliged" to issue formal charges if the remedies it suggests fall short. In theory remedies could include flagging when Google services are artificially given a higher billing than rivals.

Google said: "We continue to work co-operatively with the European commission."

If the case moved to the courts and the EC showed that Google had broken EU antitrust laws through the abuse of a dominant position, Google could be fined 10% of its worldwide revenues – which for 2011 amounts to €2.9bn (£2.3bn).

The Commission could also force its own choice of changes on Google, although fines have been easier to impose in previous cases than practical remedies. Microsoft, which fell foul of Brussels regulators over the preferential treatment it gave to its own Internet Explorer browser within Windows software, has been fined €1bn but is still being pursued for not complying with requests to offer users a choice of browsers as the default for their PC.

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