Australia’s online safety regulator has written to Twitter boss Elon Musk seeking urgent clarification about how the platform will deal with local complaints after laying off thousands of its workers around the world.
Speaking at Senate Estimates on Tuesday, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant – a former Twitter executive – agreed she was concerned about Mr Musk’s recent acquisition of the social media website, saying she feared changes at the company could make online abuse worse.
Ms Inman Grant said an overhaul of Twitter’s “blue tick” verification that will require users to pay an $8 fee will wind back crucial protections.
“If you make it a pay for play type of proposition it turns that whole justification for having such a [verification] system on its head,” she said.
“It’s simply paying for a subscription service and not only will not provide those protections, but I think can open the platform up to much more malfeasance, impersonation and fake accounts, and possibly even state sponsored information operations as well.”
The eSafety commissioner has sought an exemption from the fees for Australian government agencies amid fears they could start being impersonated by individuals trying to mislead Australians on Twitter.
Ms Inman Grant said she had also asked Mr Musk for clarification that the company will still be able to abide by its regulatory requirements and respond “expeditiously” to requests despite firing many of its staffers.
It was reported on Tuesday that Twitter’s local office has been left with a “skeleton staff” under a savage round of layoffs unveiled by Mr Musk.
Ms Inman Grant said Twitter had trouble keeping up with the volume of safety complaints on the platform before the layoffs, and that with fewer staff things are “going to inevitably fall between the cracks”.
“It’s a shame that they culled so many of these employees with trust and safety knowledge of the policies and tools,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“I would argue we need more safety reinforcements at Twitter, not less, and it makes everyone on the platform vulnerable.”
More broadly, Ms Inman Grant said she feared layoffs across the tech sector amid a global economic downturn would open up social media platforms to less stringent moderation and a surge in online abuse.
She also cited Facebook parent Meta, which is tipped to fire thousands of its workers in a cost cutting bid over the coming weeks.
“It seems that the ethics and human rights teams are the ones that go first,” she said.
The eSafety commissioner promised to table Twitter’s response to the letter in Parliament.
