Global Courant
SYDNEY — An Australian cyber regulator said Thursday it has demanded Twitter explain how it deals with online hate.
The demand builds on a campaign by the eSafety Commissioner to make the website more responsible after Mr Musk, one of the world’s richest people, bought it in October 2022 for US$44bn (S$59bn) with the promise for his dedication to free speech.
The regulator has already called on Twitter to take a more detailed approach to handling online child abuse material, which the website says has picked up since Musk’s takeover and subsequent job cuts, including content moderation features.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she sent a legal notice to Twitter asking for an explanation after a third of all complaints she received about online hate related to Twitter, even though the platform has far fewer users than TikTok or Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
“Twitter seems to have dropped the ball in tackling hate,” Ms Inman Grant said in a statement, noting that the platform had reportedly reinstated 62,000 banned accounts since Musk’s takeover, including high-profile accounts of individuals who were Nazis. adhere to rhetoric.
“We need accountability from these platforms and action to protect their users, and you can’t have accountability without transparency and that’s what legal notices like this are meant to accomplish,” she said.
Twitter must respond to the eSafety Commissioner within 28 days or be fined nearly A$700,000 (S$638,000) per day. It declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
The question comes as Australia approaches a referendum this year on whether or not to recognize Indigenous peoples in its constitution, sparking an increasingly intense debate over race.
Prominent Indigenous television host Stan Grant had cited targeted abuse on Twitter when he announced a media hiatus last month, the commissioner noted.
Specialty broadcaster National Indigenous Television also said it was taking a break from Twitter because of “the racism and hatred we experience every day on this platform,” it said in a tweet last month.
Ms Inman Grant said her letter called on Twitter to explain its impact assessments in reinstating banned accounts, how it dealt with communities affected by online hate and how it enforced its own policies prohibiting hateful conduct. REUTERS
