Australia on Thursday gave Twitter 28 days to ensure the site gets serious about tackling online hate or face fines of nearly half a million dollars for each day it’s late.
In a press release from the Australian Online Safety Agency (eSafety), its manager, Julie Inman Grant, threatened to fine the social network 475,000 dollars (432,000 euros) per day for violating the deadline.
According to him, one-third of complaints filed for hate speech online in Australia refer to comments posted on the Blue Bird site.
“Twitter doesn’t seem to be up to par in the fight against hate,” said Ms. Inman Grant, a former employee of the social network.
He said the Australian agency was “not alone in being concerned about the increasing level of toxicity and hate on Twitter, particularly against marginalized communities”.
“We are taking these sites into account and taking steps to protect their users,” he said.
Billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of the social network since October 2022, was fired in retaliation, including several content moderators responsible for combating abuse.
In November, he announced a “public amnesty” for banned accounts and an end to the fight against Covid misinformation. Tens of thousands of suspended or banned accounts have been reinstated.
“Twitter seems to have given up on the fight against hate,” said Inman Grant, who worked in cybersecurity at the US company after 17 years at Microsoft.
“We are also concerned about the many reports of content that is widely accessible and may violate Twitter’s terms of service.”
Australia has been at the forefront of policy to regulate social media platforms, and this isn’t the first time Julie Inman Grant has publicly attacked Twitter.
In November, he wrote to Mr Musk, warning that a sharp staff cut would leave Twitter unable to comply with Australian law.
Indigenous journalist Stan Grant, one of Australia’s most respected journalists, announced in May that he had complained on Twitter that he had been the subject of “racist slurs”.
In mid-June, the biggest US music labels received hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid royalties from Twitter, accusing the social network of not doing enough against the unauthorized use of songs on its platform.
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