Australia demands answers from Twitter over rise in online hate

Australia had issued a legal notice to Twitter on Thursday, demanding information about what the social media platform is doing to tackle online hate.

Twitter had dropped the ball on tackling hate, Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.

“We are seeing a worrying surge in online hate,’’ she said.

A third of all complaints about online hate reported to eSafety were about Twitter.

It had received more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past 12 months than any other platform.

An increasing number of reports of serious online abuse had been made since Elon Musk’s takeover of the company in October 2022, Inman Grant said.

Nearly one in five Australians had experienced online hate, she said.

First Nations Australians, disabled and LGBT people experienced online hate at double the rate of the rest of the population, she added.

Twitter’s terms of use and policies prohibited hateful conduct on the platform, but the company was not likely to be enforcing its own rules, Inman Grant said.

The reinstatement of banned accounts that had “emboldened extreme polarisers, peddlers of outrage and hate, including neo-Nazis both in Australia and overseas, was also a concern, ’’ she said.

“We need accountability from these platforms and action to protect their users and you cannot have accountability without transparency and that’s what legal notices like this one are designed to achieve.’’

If Twitter fails to respond to the legal notice within 28 days, the company could face a maximum fine of nearly 700,000 Australian dollars (475,000 U.S. dollars) a day for continuing breaches.

Since March, Twitter’s press email has responded to requests from the media with a single poop emoji.