To settle a legal action in France, Twitter will release data that will help identify people who made anti-semitic comments using the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew).
It is illegal to publish anti-semitic material in France and some other Eurozone countries. The speech-restricting laws are legacies of the post-World War II era, when countries were eager to ensure that Europe would never again give rise to a fascist nation.
The French case brought by the Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), which had demanded $50 million in damages.
Tweets carrying the #unbonjuif tag, and other variants of it, grew like wildfire in France last October. Twitter deleted some of them.
The data doesn't necessarily indentify users by name — because anyone can open a Twitter account with a fake name and an email address.
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