Shahak Shapira spray-paints racist tweets outside Twitter HQ in Hamburg

Israeli-born artist Shahak Shapira (Petach Tikwa, 1988) protested Twitter's failure to remove hate speech by spray-painting around 450 racist tweets on the pavement outside Twitter's German headquarters in Hamburg overnight. The tweets, directed against Muslims, Jews, and people of color, had been reported to Twitter's monitoring office but were deemed normal expressions of opinion. Shapira documented the action in a YouTube video. Twitter stated it has increased vigilance but did not address the specific case. A German law taking effect in October will fine social media platforms up to €50 million for failing to remove illegal, racist, or defamatory content within 24 hours of notification. Ironically, most of Shapira's graffiti was cleaned up within hours. Shapira previously created the Yolocaust project in January 2017, superimposing Holocaust victim images over disrespectful selfies taken at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial. A June EU study found that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Microsoft reviewed over half of hate speech reports within 24 hours and removed 60% of flagged messages, but Shapira considers these measures insufficient, warning that delayed punishment may embolden perpetrators.