GETTING TOUGH

Twitter Threatened With Hefty Fines Over Handling of Hate

The penalties could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars every day.

Australia’s online safety watchdog has sent a legal warning to Twitter demanding answers about how the platform is handling online hate, which has allegedly risen on the social network since Elon Musk’s takeover. The country’s eSafety Commission said it had received more complaints about online hate on Twitter over the last 12 months than any other platform. A letter was sent to the company on Wednesday warning that Twitter could face fines of around $476,000 every day if it does not reply to the commission’s queries within 28 days. The commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told Australia’s ABC on Thursday that “Twitter appears to have dropped the ball on tackling hate.” “Twitter has always been fiery in terms of discourse, but it’s turned into an absolute bin fire,” she said.