Elon Musk's social media platform Twitter has been issued with a demand from Australian authorities for information on what it is doing to tackle online hate.
Key points: Twitter will face fines of almost $700,000 every day that it does not comply with the demand for information on how it is tackling online hate
Twitter will face fines of almost $700,000 every day that it does not comply with the demand for information on how it is tackling online hate Australia's eSafety Comissioner says there's been more complaints about online hate on Twitter than on any other platform in the past year
Australia's eSafety Comissioner says there's been more complaints about online hate on Twitter than on any other platform in the past year Julie Inman Grant argues the mass lay-offs at Twitter have contributed to a deterioration of standards
Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said about one-third of the complaints her agency received about online hate involved content on Twitter, noting a surge in harmful posts since the Tesla chief bought the platform last year.
Twitter has 28 days to comply with the "please explain" notice, or face fines of almost $700,000 for every day it misses the deadline.
Ms Inman Grant revealed she was particularly concerned about anti-Semitic content, and harmful posts directed at Indigenous Australians and members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
She cited research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate suggesting Twitter was repeatedly failing to act on harmful content posted by Twitter Blue accounts, the platform's subscription service.
"Any long-time Twitter user has seen since Elon Musk took over the company in October of last year that their feed looks a lot different, looks a lot more toxic," she said.
"There have been a range of changes that have caused us great concerns about the current state of the platform.
"But the most important piece of evidence we have is that we have received more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past 12 months than on any other platform, and we want to know how they're enforcing their own terms of service on the issue."
Julie Inman Grant says Twitter is failing to act on harmful content posted online. ( )
Ms Inman Grant said Mr Musk's decision to let more than 62,000 suspended or banned accounts be reinstated was fuelling the situation.
"These aren't just garden-variety Twitter account holders — we've got Andrew Tate back on there," she said.
"A leopard doesn't change its spots.
"The general amnesty that Musk announced in November is more akin to breaking serial offenders out of Twitter jail, and he did so in the name of free expression.
"But what we see every day is when targeted online abuse, particularly towards marginalised communities, is enabled and is not enforced, it actually suppresses freedom of expression."
The eSafety Commissioner has the power, under Australian law, to demand information about the internal policies and procedures of companies.
Ms Inman Grant argued the dramatic axing of staff at Twitter — reported to be from 8,000 down to about 1,500 — was clearly a factor in the deterioration of standards on the platform.
"You can't combat all of that toxicity and online hate if you eviscerate your trust and safety staff," she said.
"A lot of their content moderation teams have been outsourced. We're trying to find out how many of those they still have on board.
"This is part of the fundamental basic expectations we expect of companies — if you're a multi-million or billion-dollar company, you've got hundreds of millions of global users, [and] safety by design is still key."
Twitter does not appear to have a public media contact since Mr Musk took over the company.
The ABC attempted to contact Twitter using a previous media email address, and was met with an automated response containing the smiling poo emoji.
Earlier this year, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner issued similar notices to Twitter and other social media platforms for information about efforts to combat child sexual abuse material on their platforms.
crimony70 on June 22nd, 2023 at 05:28 UTC »
This is part of a sliding scale of responses to online activities of Big Tech.
Twitter has 28 days to comply with the request (to report how they are tackling the issue of hate speech), or face A$700k/day fines until they do.
This is the second time this year Twitter has received this type of request. Previously they and others were asked to report on tacking child exploitation material. Other recipients this year have been Google, TikTok, Twitch and Discord. Last year these notices were given to Meta, Microsoft, Snap, Omegle and Apple, again regarding child exploitation material.
Winterplatypus on June 22nd, 2023 at 05:00 UTC »
If you are not from Australia be aware that "please explain" is an aussie meme/joke/saying, especially about anything to do with racism.
In the 90's a very stupid racist woman decided to go into politics. The icing on the cake was that she had a strong bogan accent (which loosely translates to aussie redneck accent). She ended up with an embarrassing amount of support campaigning on a platform of kicking asians out of Australia and that indigenous Australians get too many privileges.
When she was asked if she was xenophobic, there was a blank stare pause before she said "please explain" in that accent. For about 5-10 years everyone was imitating her saying "please exploiyne" in every day situations, it became a thing.
MaserGT on June 22nd, 2023 at 01:20 UTC »
Incoming poop emoji.