Twitter hands over data to French prosecutors Twitter has handed over user data to French prosecutors to help them identify the authors of a spate of anti-Semitic and other racist and homophobic messages in a move to settle a bitter legal dispute. The US company, which habitually resists demands to reveal information about its users, said on Friday that it had provided "data that may enable the identification of certain users that the (Paris prosecutor) believes have violated French law." It said the move put an end to disputes in France that included a claim for €50m in damages and a potential criminal charge against Dick Costolo, chief executive. President François Hollande, reflecting France's readiness to intervene in issues involving internet companies, had backed the call for Twitter to aid the authorities. Jonathan Hayoun, head of the French Union of Jewish Students (EUJF), called Twitter's decision "a great victory" and "a big step in the fight against the notion of impunity on the internet. Twitter can no longer be a boulevard for racists and anti-Semites. Twitter earlier held out against a court order issued in January that it give up data relating to tweets that appeared in October last year grouped under the hashtags #unbonjuif (a good Jew) and #unjuifmort (a dead Jew). Other message streams appeared under the hashtags #simafilleameneunnoir (if my daughter brought home a black man) and #simonfilsestgay (if my son is gay). Twitter blocked access for users in France to the tweets, deemed to have broken France's anti-hatred laws, after a volley of protests from anti-racist and anti-homophobia groups. But it refused to hand over data that could identify the pseudonymous authors, prompting the UEJF to launch separate law suits against the company and Mr Costolo. The UEJF claimed €50m in damages against Twitter for non-compliance with French law and sought a criminal charge against Mr Costolo for alleged racial defamation and provocation of hatred against Jews. Twitter's change of heart followed a ruling last month by the appeal court confirming the outcome in the lower court. In the joint statement with the EUJF, it said all parties had agreed to work together actively against racism and anti-Semitism "such as by taking measures to improve the accessibility of the reporting procedure of illegal tweets." Twitter has styled itself "the free speech wing of the free speech party." Its guidelines for law enforcement agencies states that it "will only respond to valid legal process in compliance with US law," bringing it into potential conflict with European jurisdictions where anti-hatred legislation is typically much tighter than in the US. It was notably absent from the list of companies said by the whistleblower Edward Snowden to have contributed to the US government's Prism surveillance scheme, which gives the National Security Agency access to emails and other personal information. The French authorities have repeatedly acted against big US companies that dominate the digital world. notably leading EU probes into Google's privacy policies. Investigations are currently under way into Skype, the Microsoft-owned internet phone service, for not registering as a telecom operator, Apple, for its resale practices, and the operation of application stores run by Apple, Google and Amazon.