Skip to main content

Australia threatens Twitter with huge fines over hate speech

Twitter could be hit with huge fines in Australia after the antipodean nation’s cyber watchdog asked the social media company to explain what it’s doing to prevent online hate.

The eSafety commissioner said on Thursday that it has received more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past 12 months than any other platform, and has received an increasing number of reports of serious online abuse since Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company in October.

Recommended Videos

The watchdog has asked Twitter to respond within 28 days or face maximum financial penalties of 700,000 Australian dollars (about $475,000) per day.

eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Twitter’s terms of use and policies prohibit hateful conduct on the platform, but added that the increase in complaints suggests Twitter is falling short when it comes to implementing its own rules.

The Australian watchdog noted that the complaints have come following Musk’s decision last November to reinstate tens of thousands of previously banned or suspended accounts, including 75 with more than 1 million followers.

“We are seeing a worrying surge in hate online,” Inman Grant said. “eSafety research shows that nearly 1 in 5 Australians have experienced some form of online hate. This level of online abuse is already inexcusably high, but if you’re a First Nations Australian, you are disabled, or identify as LGBTIQ+ you experience online hate at double the rate of the rest of the population.”

The commissioner added: “Twitter appears to have dropped the ball on tackling hate.”

Inman Grant suggested the platform’s Australian team was also impacted by Musk’s dismissal of its public policy unit, which liaised with the watchdog to prioritize abuse reports and also had a direct line to the U.S.-based head office that enabled it to explain sensitive local issues, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Twitter has yet to respond publicly to the watchdog’s statement. Press inquiries sent by email to the social media company continue to be met with a reply containing only a single poop emoji — a new approach to Twitter’s media relations brought in by Musk.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Twitter’s SMS two-factor authentication is having issues. Here’s how to switch methods
A person's hands holding a smartphone as they browse Twitter on it.

It might be a good idea to review and change your two-factor authentication options for Twitter. Elon Musk's Twitter has another issue for its users to worry about.

Twitter has reportedly been having issues with its SMS two-factor authentication feature (2FA). According to Wired, beginning as early as this past weekend, some Twitter users have reported difficulties logging in to their Twitter accounts due to the app's SMS 2FA feature not working properly. Essentially, the feature relies on the app sending users an authentication code via text message, which they can then enter as a second step in the login process.

Read more
Twitter has reportedly suspended signups for Twitter Blue
Twitter Blue menu option on a white screen background which is on a black background.

The start of Elon Musk's tenure as owner of Twitter has not been without its struggles and chaos. And so far, the chaos Twitter currently finds itself in shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

So it seems fitting that the latest news on the Twitter front is that signups for the microblogging platform's $8-per-month Twitter Blue subscription have reportedly been suspended. On Friday, Forbes reported that new signups for Twitter's newly revamped Blue subscription have apparently been disabled, having "verified that users have not been able to sign up to the service for more than an hour," and also citing that the option to sign up for Blue on the iOS app had disappeared as further proof of the suspension. The Verge also noted that some users may still see the option to subscribe, only to then be met with an error message. One of the editors at Digital Trends said the option to sign up for the service is just missing from his iOS app's menu, noted that it had been like that "since at least 8 p.m. PT last night," and shared the following screenshot:

Read more
Twitter begins rollout of new gray check marks only to abruptly remove them
Elon Musk.

In the middle of writing an article about Twitter's initial rollout of a new gray check mark verification badge, we noticed something odd: Twitter accounts that had the new gray check marks only minutes earlier were suddenly without them again. So what happened?

Elon Musk apparently happened. Mere hours after his newly purchased social media platform began its rollout of a new gray check mark in an effort to help clarify which high-profile accounts were actually verified, the new gray check marks began disappearing from various accounts, evidently at Musk's behest. Just take a look at this tweet conversation between web video producer Marques Brownlee and Musk:

Read more