Australia Warns Twitter of Potential Heavy Fines for Failing to Tackle Online Hate
On Thursday, an Australian cyber regulator requested that Twitter clarify its approach to dealing with online hate, as it has become the most frequently reported platform in the country since new owner Elon Musk lifted bans on approximately 62,000 accounts.
The demand comes on the heels of a campaign by the eSafety Commissioner to make the website more accountable after Musk, one of the world’s richest people, bought it for $44 billion in October and promised to restore his commitment to free speech.
The regulator has already asked Twitter to detail the online child abuse material it has covered, which it says has increased on the website since Musk took power and the subsequent loss of jobs, including content moderation roles.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she had sent Twitter a legal notice demanding an explanation after a third of all her online hate-related complaints involved Twitter, even though the platform has far fewer users than TikTok or Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
“Twitter appears to have dropped the ball on combating hate,” Inman Grant said in a statement, noting that the platform had said it had reinstated 62,000 banned accounts since Musk’s takeover, including high-profile accounts of people espousing Nazi rhetoric.
“We need accountability from these platforms and action to protect their users, and there can be no accountability without transparency, and that’s what legal notices like this are meant to achieve,” he said.
Twitter must respond to the eSafety Commissioner within 28 days or face a fine of almost A$700,000 ($473,480) per day. It declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
The demand comes as Australia approaches this year’s referendum on recognizing indigenous peoples in the constitution, fueling an increasingly heated debate over race.
Prominent Indigenous TV presenter Stan Grant had referred to targeted abuse on Twitter when he announced his retirement from the media last month, the commissioner noted.
Specialty broadcaster National Indigenous Television also said it was taking a hiatus from Twitter “because of the racism and hatred we experience every day on this platform,” it said on Twitter last month.
Inman Grant said his letter called on Twitter to explain its impact assessment when it reinstates banned accounts, how it engaged with communities targeted by online hate, and how it enforced its own policies that prohibit hate speech.
($1 = 1.4784 Australian dollars)
