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Australia demands answers from Twitter over rise in online hate

On Thursday, Twitter received a legal notice from Australia requesting details about its efforts to combat online hate.

Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety commissioner for Australia, claimed that Twitter had failed to adequately address hate.

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

Twitter was mentioned in one-third of all online hate-crime complaints made to eSafety.

In the previous 12 months, Twitter had received more complaints about online hatred than any other network.

Since Elon Musk took control of the business in October 2022, there have been an increasing number of reports of significant internet abuse, according to Inman Grant.

According to her, nearly one in five Australians have encountered online hatred.

First Nations Australians, persons with disabilities, and LGBT individuals all encountered online hate at rates that were twice as high as the general population, she continued.

Hateful behavior was prohibited by Twitter’s terms of service and policies, but Inman Grant claimed that the corporation was unlikely to be upholding these policies.

Reopening of accounts that had been blocked for “emboldening extreme polarisers, peddlers of indignation and hate, including neo-Nazis both in Australia and overseas,” she said, was another cause for concern.

“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 doesn’t reply to the legal warning within 28 days, the firm could be fined up to $700,000 AUD (about $475,00 USD) every day for persistent violations.

Since March, a single poop emoji has been used as the response to media queries in Twitter’s press email.

Ogechi Chukwu

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