Twitter blocks neo-Nazi account in Germany

Twitter yesterday said it had blocked an account in a country for the first time, after German police asked the micro-blogging site to restrict access by a neo-Nazi group.

Twitter's chief lawyer, Alex Macgillivray said the company announced the ability to withhold content back in January.  He said a message had been posted on the website that the company was using it now for the first time.

In another tweet, Macgillivray posted a link to a letter from the police in the northern state of Lower Saxony asking Twitter to block the account of Besseres Hannover.

The account was still visible on Twitter with the handle @hannoverticker and calling itself "Das nationale Informationsportal aus Hannover" (The national information portal from Hanover). However, no messages visible in Germany since 25 September, and it seemed the website had been blocked or deleted.

The link to the police letter outlined how the government had banned the organisation Besseres Hannover, (Better Hannover), a right-wing extremist group from Lower Saxony.

"It is disbanded, its assets are seized and all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately," the letter read.

Though it was not clear whether the group had a Facebook page, a spokesman for the social network said, it worked with anti-Nazi organisations and would encourage anyone who came across content of the kind to report it to Facebook.

The group is also accused of issuing threats against immigrants and distributing racist pamphlets at schools in Lower Saxony.