In France, Twitter grudgingly yields to pressure and will identify users accused of hate speech

Somini Sengupta in the NYT reports on Twitter's agreement this week, after months of legal battling, to ID several users who posted anti-Semitic comments on its service, whom French authorities want to prosecute for violating hate speech laws.

The case has important implications for Twitter users worldwide, as governments increasingly try to extract user information from the service. Legal experts say Twitter could have insisted that the French authorities seek to extract the user data by filing a claim in the United States, where the company is based.