Australian watchdog gives Twitter 28 days to tackle online hate

Australia’s internet safety watchdog has given Twitter an ultimatum of 28 days to clean up “toxicity and hate” on its platform, threatening to fine the company if it fails to comply. The watchdog has issued a legal notice to Twitter demanding an explanation of what the social media giant is doing to tackle the surge in online hate since Elon Musk took over the platform.

In the past few months, since Elon Musk became the new chairman of Twitter, Australia has complained most about the micro-blogging site for turning a blind eye to online hate over the platform. The eSafety Commission has been the most vocal firm against Twitter’s policies.

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The agency, whichdescribes itself as the world’s first government agency dedicated to keeping people safer online, said Thursday that it received more complaints about Twitter in the past 12 months than any other platform and received an increasing number of reports of serious online abuse since Musk took over the company in October last year.

Twitter has 28 days to respond

The eSafety Commission’s boss, Julie Inman Grant, said she sent a notice to Twitter on Wednesday with 36 detailed questions on how the platform’s policies about hateful conduct are enforced.

If Twitter does not respond with factual and truthful responses to all questions within 28 days, an Australian judge could fine the company up to 700,000 Australian dollars ($476,000) for every day of delay, said Inman Grant.

“The whole idea of the basic online safety expectations is that global companies like Twitter are enforcing their own policies … and that they’ve got people and technology to keep their platforms safe,” Inman Grant said.

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“They have a Hateful Conduct policy that says you may not directly attack other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, etc., and I want to know if fundamentally they are enforcing this policy and how effectively they are doing so,” she added.

Twitter under Musk has fired more than 80 per cent of the global workforce, including many of the content moderators who are responsible for stamping out abuse.

But the company’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino has a different take as she said last week that her vision for Twitter was making it “world’s most accurate real-time information source and global town square for communication.”

Hate against Indigenous Australians on Twitter

The eSafety Commission’s demand as Australia prepares for a referendum this year on whether to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution, prompting an increasingly intense debate about race.

As per Inman Grant, Indigenous Australians, disabled people and those who identify as LGBTQ+ experience hateat double the rate of other Australians.

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“A third of all reports into our office of online hate is coming from Twitter. It’s been a huge surge since October ’22 when Elon Musk took over,” Inman Grant told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Twitter has always been fiery in terms of discourse, but it’s turned into an absolute bin fire.”

This is not the first time that Inman Grant has lashed out at Twitter publicly. She wrote to Musk in November last year, expressing fears that the deep staff cuts would leave the company unable to meet Australian laws.

(With inputs from agencies)

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