The online platform faces fines of up to AU$700K per day if it does not adequately address hate speech
There has been a marked rise of hate speech on Twitter since billionaire Elon Musk bought the platform in October 2022.
This had led to advertisers fleeing the platform, and Australia’s eSafety commission to threaten the site with AU$700,000 in fines per day if it does not clean up its content.
The commission went so far as to call Twitter a “bin fire”, as it received more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past 12 months than any other platform.
Reports escalated since Elon Musk’s takeover of the company.
A self-described “free-speech absolutist”, Musk vowed to put an end to what he saw as cancel culture that was rampant on the platform.
As part of this, he reinstated many accounts that had been banned by previous management for violating the platform’s terms of use.
Most famously that of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter for his involvement in the January 6 riots in Washington DC.
Musk also slashed jobs as part of a cost cutting plan that saw many staff in content moderation, among other departments, made redundant.
