White nationalists use Twitter with ‘relative impunity’

White nationalists and self-identified Nazi sympathizers located mostly in the United States use Twitter with “relative impunity” and often have far more followers than militant Islamists, a study being released on Thursday found.Eighteen prominent white nationalist accounts examined in the study, including the American Nazi Party, have seen a sharp increase in Twitter followers to a total of more than 25,000, up from about 3,500 in 2012, according to the study by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism that was seen by Reuters.The study’s findings contrast with declining influence on Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) service for Islamic State, also known as ISIS, amid crackdowns that have targeted the militant group, according to earlier research by report author J.M. Berger and the findings of other counter-extremism experts and government officials.“White nationalists and Nazis outperformed ISIS in average friend and follower counts by a substantial margin,” the report said. “Nazis had a median follower count almost eight times greater than ISIS supporters, and a mean count more than 22 times greater.”

EU ruling on Apple’s Irish tax is ‘total political crap’: CEO

Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook described an EU ruling that it must pay a huge tax bill to Ireland as “total political crap”, but France joined Germany on Thursday in backing Brussels as transatlantic tensions grow.European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager dismissed Cook’s broadside, saying the demand for a 13 billion euro ($14.5 billion) back tax payment was based on the facts.Washington has lined up with the tech giant, accusing the European Union of trying to grab tax revenue that should go to the U.S. government.But in Ireland itself, the government and public opinion are divided over whether to take the windfall – whoch would fund the country’s health system for a year – or reject it in the hope of maintaining a low tax regime that has attracted many multinationals, creating jobs.A group of independent lawmakers, whose support is crucial to the minority coalition’s survival, called for a review of how tax is collected from multinationals. Their reluctance to back a call for an appeal by the country’s finance minister has cast doubt on whether Ireland will challenge Vestager’s decision.Apple has said it will appeal the ruling whoch Cook attacked in an interview with the Irish Independent. “No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together. Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable,” the newspaper quoted him saying. “It’s total political crap.”