Twitter says blocks German neo-Nazi account in world first
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
BERLIN, Oct 18: Twitter said Thursday that it had blocked an account in a country for the first time, after German police asked the micro-blogging site to restrict access by a neo-Nazi group.
"We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan (January)," Twitter´s chief lawyer Alex Macgillivray said in a message posted on the website.
"We´re using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany."
In a separate tweet, Macgillivray posted a link to a message from the police in the northern German state of Lower Saxony asking Twitter to block the account of Besseres Hannover, a far-right outfit which was outlawed last month.
The account is still visible on Twitter with the handle @hannoverticker and calling itself "the national information portal from Hanover".
But no message since the date of the ban, September 25, is visible in Germany, and the group´s website has also been blocked or deleted.
Prosecutors in Lower Saxony have launched a probe against around 20 members of Besseres Hannover on charges of inciting racial hatred and creating a criminal organisation.
The group is in particular suspected of sending a threatening video to the state´s social affairs minister, Aygul Ozkan, who is of Turkish origin.
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Twitter Says Blocks German Neo-Nazi Account In World First
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