Tweets blocked from banned German group

The Twitter account of a banned neo-Nazi organization has been blocked at the request of the German government. The account belonging to "Besseres Hannover" is the first to be blocked by Twitter since the social networking site instituted a local censorship policy in January, The Jewish Chronicle reported Thursday. The policy helps Twitter block content that violates national laws. German police had requested the action because Besseres Hannover is outlawed in Germany. Authorities said the organization had been disbanded and its assets seized. Tweets from the account will still be accessible to users outside of Germany. Alex Macgillivray, general counsel for Twitter, commented that "Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly and transparently." Twitter has been accused recently of not doing enough to block offensive content.