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European Jewish student group sues Twitter over its handling of antisemitism and Holocaust denial
BERLIN (JTA) – Europe’s main Jewish student organization is fed up with the antisemitism, Holocaust denial and other hate speech burgeoning on Twitter — so they are taking the social media company to court.
The Brussels-based European Union of Jewish Students and the Berlin-based HateAid non-profit group on Wednesday announced they have sued Twitter in Berlin District Court for failing to uphold its own pledge to remove hate speech from the platform.
The action — which included the placement of a hashtag prop in front of the German parliament building, in an inversion of a symbol that Twitter itself popularized — was sponsored by the Berlin-based Alfred Landecker Foundation, as part of its Digital Justice Movement, started by HateAid.
The move comes as Germany prepares to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day with ceremonies and events across the country.
But that is not enough, said Avital Grinberg, president of the EUJS, which represents some 160,000 European Jewish students. “Remembrance of the Shoah must not be merely expressed through emotional speeches, but also through clear positions, resolute action and protective laws,” she said.
The announcement of the lawsuit comes a day after Twitter reinstated the American Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, the latest in a string of people who had posted antisemitic material to the platform to be allowed back since the billionaire Elon Musk bought it last year. Fuentes immediately tweeted antisemitic comments and was suspended again.
But the site does not remove antisemitism, according to the student group’s lawsuit. Armed with six specific cases in which they claim Twitter did not take complaints seriously, the Berlin law firm of Preu Bohlig sued Twitter on Tuesday, demanding the removal of antisemitic content that is illegal under German law, said Torben Duesing, a partner in the firm, at a press conference Wednesday in the German capital.
Their aim is twofold: to move a social media mountain, and to encourage targets of hate speech to speak up. The six cases — all of which were posted in the last three months — were not described, to avoid giving them further publicity, organizers said.
But the groups did say that in one case relating to Holocaust denial, Twitter had explicitly refused to remove the content.
Europe has been a challenging frontier for technology companies, which have had to take steps to ensure digital privacy and change their handling of misinformation because of European laws and regulations. Now, the students’ lawsuit aims to leverage Germany’s particularly vigorous laws barring Holocaust denial and the glorification of Nazi ideology to force the platform to remove it. There are similar laws in other EU countries.
The lawsuit focuses on clarifying whether Twitter has a contractual obligation to its users, under its legal terms of service, to remove antisemitic tweets that contain sedition, including trivialization and denial of the Holocaust.
Just because Twitter doesn’t respond adequately to complaints doesn’t mean one should give up trying, said German Jewish writer and activist Marina Weisband at the press conference. All Twitter users around the world agree to the terms of service, “which is designed to protect users” from hate speech, she said. But if Twitter doesn’t enforce these terms, what are they worth?
Twitter claims to share the view that “Jewish rights are human rights,” said Grinberg. “But the reality appears to be the opposite.”
There has as yet been no response to the suit from Twitter, which has not had a public relations team since shortly after Musk’s acquisition, when he slashed the staff. The company is already subject to an advertiser boycott that has sharply curbed its revenue, the result of a push by the Anti-Defamation League and others in response to Musk’s lack of action around hate speech on the platform.
The ADL released an analysis last year finding that Twitter removed only 5% of 225 tweets that it reported as “strongly antisemitic” — comments accusing Jewish people of pedophilia, invoking Holocaust denial, and sharing conspiracy theories — over nine weeks last summer. It also found that antisemitism spiked on the platform following Musk’s acquisition.
In 2021, a report by the British-based Center for Countering Digital Hate found that 84% of reported posts on social media platforms containing antisemitic hate were not reviewed by the platforms. According to the survey, Twitter intervened in only 11% of the cases.
Twitter does promise to police its platform and has lately has suspended the accounts of users whose antisemitic comments made headlines. That was true last year for Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and again on Wednesday for Fuentes after his reinstatement.
But more is needed, said the students and attorneys behind the European lawsuit.
“We know that one lawsuit is not enough to make Twitter a perfect place,” Josephine Ballon, HateAid’s lead attorney. “We know that it takes more than that, but we are convinced that it is precisely these kinds of lawsuits that will put new tools” in the hands of minority groups and individuals.
“Social media is the most important debate platform of our generation,” said Grinberg. The lawsuit, she said, is “the response of resilient Jews to the failure of Twitter, social media, politicians and the law.”
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The post European Jewish student group sues Twitter over its handling of antisemitism and Holocaust denial appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran to Completely Close Hormuz if Trump Executes Threats on Iranian Energy, Revolutionary Guards Say
FILE PHOTO: A map showing the Strait of Hormuz is seen in this illustration taken June 22, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo
Iran will completely shut the strategic Strait of Hormuz if US President Donald Trump executes threats to target Iranian energy facilities, the country’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Sunday.
Trump on Saturday threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48-hours, suggesting a significant escalation barely a day after he talked about “winding down” the war, now in its fourth week.
In their Sunday statement Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said companies with US shares will be “completely destroyed,” if Iranian energy facilities were targeted by Washington and energy facilities in countries that host US bases will be ‘lawful’ targets.
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Netanyahu in Arad: Iran Has ‘Capacity to Reach Deep into Europe’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Aug. 10, 2025. Photo: ABIR SULTAN/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking Sunday at the site of a missile strike in Arad, said recent Iranian attacks demonstrate that Tehran poses a threat not only to Israel but to global security, urging stronger international action against the Islamic Republic.
“If you want proof that Iran endangers the entire world, the last 48 hours have given it,” Netanyahu said, referring to recent missile fire on Israeli civilian areas. He said the intent behind the strikes was “to murder civilians,” adding that the lack of fatalities in Arad was “due to luck, not their intention.”
Netanyahu also cited Iran’s missile launch toward Jerusalem late last week. The missile landed near major religious sites, including the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He described the incident as evidence of indiscriminate targeting of symbolic and civilian areas.
In addition, he referenced reports of a long-range missile launch toward Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, saying it demonstrated Iran’s expanding capabilities. He also claimed Iran had previously targeted European territory, including Cyprus, and warned that such developments place multiple regions at risk.
“They have now the capacity to reach deep into Europe,” Netanyahu said. “They are putting everyone in their sights.”
He further accused Iran of threatening international maritime routes and energy supply lines, saying Tehran was attempting to “blackmail the entire world.”
Calling for coordinated international pressure, Netanyahu said Israel and the United States were acting together and urged other countries to follow.
“The call is not only for the security of America and Israel, but for the security of the entire world,” he said, adding that more global involvement was needed.
Responding to reporters, Netanyahu said Israel’s military response is focused on Iranian leadership and infrastructure rather than civilians. “We’re going after the regime… the IRGC, their leaders, their installations, their economic assets,” he said.
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Iran Threatens to Retaliate Against Gulf Energy and Water After Trump Ultimatum
Symbolic mock-ups of Iranian missiles are displayed on a street, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 22, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran said on Sunday it would strike the energy and water systems of its Gulf neighbors in retaliation if US President Donald Trump follows through with a threat to hit Iran’s electricity grid in 48 hours, escalating the three-week-old war.
The prospect of tit-for-tat strikes on civilian infrastructure could deepen the regional crisis and rattle global markets when they reopen on Monday morning.
Air raid sirens sounded across Israel from the early hours of Sunday, warning of incoming missiles from Iran, after scores of people were hurt overnight in two separate attacks in the southern Israeli towns of Arad and Dimona.
The Israeli military said hours later that it was striking Tehran in response.
Trump threatened overnight to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, barely a day after he talked about “winding down” the war. He made the new threat as US Marines and heavy landing craft are heading to the region.
But while attacks on electricity could hurt Iran, they would be potentially catastrophic for its Gulf neighbors, which consume around five times as much power per capita. Electricity makes their gleaming desert cities habitable, and most of them produce nearly all of their drinking water by purifying it from the sea.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf wrote on X that critical infrastructure and energy facilities in the Middle East could be “irreversibly destroyed” should Iranian power plants be attacked.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said it would also mean the shipping lane where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits along Iran’s southern coast would remain shut.
“The Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed and will not be opened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt,” the Guards said in a statement.
More than 2,000 people have been killed during the war the US and Israel launched on February 28, which has upended markets, spiked fuel costs, fueled global inflation fears and convulsed the postwar Western alliance.
‘TICKING TIME BOMB OF ELEVATED UNCERTAINTY’
“President Trump’s threat has now placed a 48-hour ticking time bomb of elevated uncertainty over markets,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore, who expects stock markets to fall when they reopen on Monday.
Oil prices jumped on Friday, ending the day at their highest in nearly four years.
Markets already under severe strain from blockaded shipping were further rattled last week when Israel attacked a major gas field in Iran, and Tehran responded with strikes on neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, raising the prospect of damage hindering energy output even if tankers resume sailing.
Iranian attacks have effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, causing the worst oil crisis since the 1970s. Its near-closure sent European gas prices surging as much as 35% last week.
“If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” Trump posted on social media around 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 GMT) on Saturday.
Iranian media quoted the country’s representative to the International Maritime Organization as saying the strait remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to “Iran’s enemies.”
Ali Mousavi said passage through the waterway was possible by coordinating security and safety arrangements with Tehran.
Ship-tracking data shows some vessels, such as Indian-flagged ships and a Pakistani oil tanker, have negotiated safe passage through the strait. But the vast majority of ships have remained holed up inside.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters said on Sunday if the US hit Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure, Iran would attack all US energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure in the region.
Striking major Iranian power plants could trigger blackouts, crippling everything from pumps and refineries to export terminals and military command centers.
IRAN EXPANDS RISKS WITH LONG-RANGE MISSILES
The United States and Israel say they have seriously degraded Iran’s ability to project force beyond its borders with their three weeks of intensive air strikes.
But Tehran fired its first known long-range ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) on Friday towards a US-British Indian Ocean military base, expanding the risk of attacks beyond the Middle East.
An Iranian strike also landed near Israel’s secretive nuclear reactor about 13 km (8 miles) southeast of the city of Dimona.
The war has been taking place alongside a confrontation on a separate front between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, backed by Iran, with Israel saying on Sunday its troops had raided a number of the armed group’s sites in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it had attacked several border areas in northern Israel. Israeli emergency services said one person was killed in a kibbutz near the border, the first fatality in Israel killed by fire from Lebanon since the escalation began.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel since it entered the regional war on March 2, prompting an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon.
Israel said it had instructed the military to accelerate the demolition of Lebanese homes in “frontline villages” to end threats to Israelis, and to destroy all bridges over Lebanon’s Litani River which it said were used for “terrorist activity”.
Pope Leo appealed for an end to the conflict. “The death and suffering caused by this war are a scandal to the whole human family,” he said.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week found 59% of Americans disapprove of US strikes against Iran, while 37% approved. The war has become a major political liability for Trump ahead of November elections for Congress.