Lawmaker pulls Nazi symbol charges

BERLIN (Reuters) - A left-wing German politician withdrew charges against online encyclopedia Wikipedia on Friday for promoting the use of banned Nazi symbols in Germany.

Katina Schubert, a deputy leader of the far-left Left party, had filed the charges with Berlin police Thursday. He argued that Wikipedia's German language site contained too much Nazi symbolism, particularly an article on the Hitler Youth movement.

Schubert said Friday she had spoken to Wikimedia Deutschland, which promotes the Internet lexicon in Germany, and had decided not to pursue the case even though she still believed neo-Nazis could take advantage of such sites.

"Filing charges is obviously the wrong path to go down in this dispute so I am today withdrawing them after intensive discussions with Wikimedia," Schubert said in a statement on the Left party's web site.

She noted most of the symbols linked to the Hitler Youth had been removed from the website.

Wikimedia Deutschland had rejected the accusations and said the symbols were clearly used for educational and documentational purposes.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; editing by Robert Woodward)