Twitter blocked an account belonging to a banned neo-Nazi group on Thursday, preventing Germans receiving or viewing tweets from the account.
The group Besseres Hannover, under the alias @hannoverticker now reveals only the following generic tweet: “Withheld account. @Hannover ticker’s account has been withheld in Germany.”
The move is the first blanket censorship action taken by Twitter.
“We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan," tweeted Alex Macgillivray, Twitter’s general counsel. “We’re using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany.”
In a fax sent to Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California, police in Northern Germany said:
“The Ministry of the Interior of the State of Lower Saxony in Germany has banned the organisation Besseres Hannover,”
“It is disbanded, its assets are seized and all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately."
“The Public Prosecutor (State Attorney’s Office) has launched an investigation on suspicion of forming a criminal association … I ask you to close this account immediately and not to open any substitute accounts for the organisation Besseres Hannover.”
