Australia's online safety authority, eSafety, has sent a legal notice to Twitter demanding that the social network explain its efforts to curb online hate speech or face fines.
According to a press release from the Australian censorship agency, Twitter has received the highest number of complaints compared to other social networks over the past year.
Julie Inman Grant, the commissioner for eSafety, also noted that reports of abuse have increased since Elon Musk took ownership of the company in October 2022.
Inman Grant expressed her concerns on ABC Australia, stating, "Any long-time Twitter user has seen since Elon Musk took over the company in October of last year that their feed looks a lot different ... looks a lot more toxic."
Moreover, she also disapproved of Musk's choice to restore over 62,000 previously censored or banned accounts. She likened Musk's action to "breaking serial offenders out of Twitter jail ... in the name of free expression."
Twitter has since been given 28 days to respond to the Australian authority on its efforts to curb the alleged increase in hate speech or else face fines of roughly $475,000 for each day past the deadline.
The report follows after European Union officials appeared in San Francisco, according to Axios, to conduct a "stress test" of Twitter's new online safety regulations.
Inman Grant also told ABC Australia that "the most important piece of evidence we have is that we have received more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past 12 months than on any other platform."
Newsmax reached out to Australia's eSafety for a report of the evidence, but eSafety provided no such report prior to the publishing deadline of this article.
On Tuesday, Musk tweeted that "repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions. The words 'cis' or 'cisgender' are considered slurs on this platform."