Two German nonprofits – the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) and HateAid – are suing Twitter regarding its alleged failure to police antisemitic content and Holocaust denial on its platform in violation of German law, as well as the company’s own policies on hateful conduct.
The suit, which was filed in Berlin just prior to Friday’s observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, alleges at least six instances in which Twitter failed to remove antisemitic content brought to its attention including one case where it is alleged the company explicitly refused to do so.
The suit comes as many U.S. nonprofits continue to weigh whether to remain on Twitter amid concerns about a rise in hate speech following changes to its content moderation policies occasioned by Elon Musk’s October 2022 purchase of the company.
It also highlights the ongoing tension between the view that free speech should be unlimited – as the ACLU famously argued when it defended the right of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1978 – and the view that hate speech needs to be policed.
B’nai B’rith International, one of the world’s largest nonprofit Jewish rights organizations, tweeted that it was “concerned about Twitter’s failure to enforce its terms of service on Holocaust denial and incitement, as detailed in a German lawsuit” and that “Twitter must be held accountable for allowing the misuse of its platform.”
A spokesperson for B’nai B’rith told The NonProfit Times the organization would have no further comment at this time. The Anti-Defamation League did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
The United States, almost uniquely among the world’s democracies, has long been governed by the First Amendment to its Constitution, which prohibits placing prior limitations on a person’s exercise of free speech.
However, other democracies – notably Canada, Germany and Israel – have laws that prohibit Holocaust denial with Germany explicitly criminalizing it. Upholding the law by removing such content is thus incumbent on social media companies under the law, argue the plaintiffs.
Josephine Ballon, legal head at HateAid, suggested Twitter bears further responsibility for not enforcing the terms of its own policies on hateful and abusive conduct, which commit the company to “combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance” and expressly prohibit users from denying the facts of “mass murder or other mass casualty events.”
“Twitter assures it won’t tolerate violence on its platform but in practice, we see the opposite happening,” Ballon said in a statement. “Illegal content is at best removed in arbitrary and untransparent ways. This must finally change. Twitter owes us a communication platform where we can move freely and without fear of hatred and agitation.”
EUJS President Avital Grinberg predicted the lawsuit would be a “landmark case” that would clarify the degree to which social media companies can be held liable for not enforcing their terms of service.
“By allowing hateful content to spread, the company fails to protect users, and Jews in particular,” Grinberg added. “What starts online does not end there… If Jews are forced out of the virtual space due to antisemitism and digital violence, Jewish life will become invisible in a place that is relevant to society.”
The plaintiffs, in their complaint, go on to cite a rise in European antisemitism as well as a 2021 report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, whose authors reported that 84% of posts containing antisemitic hate were not reviewed by social media platforms, with Twitter taking action only 11% of the time.
“For several years, we have been observing a massive spread of antisemitic statements on the internet. Particularly on social networks, taboos are broken on a regular basis. More than 77 years after the end of World War II, threats of violence against Jews and trivialization and open denial of the Shoah (Holocaust) are happening on a daily basis,” the plaintiffs added in a joint statement.
Separately, the Pew Research Center reported in 2020 that fewer than half of U.S. adults knew how many Jews – 6 million – were murdered in the Holocaust or that Hitler himself came to power democratically.
Twitter owner Elon Musk has not commented on the lawsuit.
