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Anti-gay hashtags flood French Twitter

PARIS, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A French gay rights groups said it will sue Twitter after the hashtag "gays must die" became the nation's most popular "trending" topic over the weekend.

A pro-gay French group dubbed the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, or IDAHO, said Monday its members plan to sue Twitter to turn over the information on users who used the hashtag and turn the information over to French authorities to be investigated for allegedly violating France's hate speech laws, TheLocal.fr said.

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"We support free expression, and we understand that there are some people who simply don't like gay people, but this is a call for the extermination of the gay community," said Alexander Marcel, a member of IDAHO. "Twitter hasn't deleted a single homophobic tweet, nor removed a single homophobic hashtag from its list of most popular trending terms."

Two other hashtags, #TeamHomophobes and #LetsBurnGayPeople also gained traction over the weekend though they weren't as popularly used as #GaysMustDie.

A Twitter representative couldn't be reached to comment.

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