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A spate of offensive French hashtags on the social network Twitter have led the French Government to demand more action against posts which could breach their strict anti-hate speech laws.
It follows a court case in Paris to force Twitter to provide the details of users who had posted anti-Jewish comments under two French hashtags so that they could be prosecuted.
Twitter agreed to remove the hashtags in October, but refused to hand over the details of users stating that this information was stored on servers in the United States so French law did not apply.
This case highlights the potentially confusing gap for users between the strict laws in some European countries and the protections of freedom of expression in the US. These differences mean it can be all too easy to unexpectedly find yourself on the wrong side of the law because of something you’ve posted online.
Our research found that only 44% of people could correctly spot illegal activities when given a number of online scenarios.
A quick and easy way to check your own understanding of how the law in the UK applies online is to take our free online test which also gives helpful advice on how to stay out of trouble.
The following tips should also help:
- When you log-on, don’t let your common sense log-off! Something that seems like a harmless prank could have unpleasant consequences.
- Just because everyone else is talking about a topic or using an offensive hashtag doesn’t mean its legal – if there’s any doubt, it’s best to say nowt!
- If you are going to say something negative about someone online, be absolutely sure it is true before you publish.
- Never post jokes online that might be seen to encourage people to do anything illegal or violent.
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