Rivarol's Twitter account "called for racial hatred and sympathised with crimes against humanity", a spokesman for the government's racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination body (DILCRAH) said, adding it had repeatedly reported the account to the social media platform. France, home to the biggest Jewish community in Europe, has seen a sharp rise in anti-Jewish offences reported to police -- up 74 percent last year. Frederic Potier from DILCRAH welcomed the move by Twitter, saying it was thanks to a push "against online hate speech". "However, there is still a lot of work to be done on Twitter," he said, adding that online abuse of Jews has long gone unpunished. He said he suspected that Rivarol's editor Jerome Bourbon -- whose own Twitter account was already suspended -- was personally behind the magazine's tweets.

Source: The Local February 19, 2019 03:45 UTC