Since billionaire Elon Musk acquired X, the social media website has become a toxic environment of online hate, Australia's internet safety watchdog says.
From May 2022 to 2023, the eSafety Commissioner received more complaints about online hate on the website formerly known as Twitter than any other service, recording a bump in complaints after X's takeover by the self-described "free speech absolutist".
Since the website's acquisition in October 2022, the commissioner's transparency report revealed X had shed a third of its trust and safety staff and halved the number of moderators while reinstating more than 6100 previously banned Australian accounts - nearly 200 of which had been suspended for hateful conduct.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says it is "almost inevitable" that a social media platform under these conditions would become "more toxic and less safe" for users.
"You’re really creating a bit of a perfect storm," she said.
"If you let the worst offenders back on while at the same time significantly reducing trust and safety personnel whose job it is to protect users from harm, there are clear concerns about the implications for the safety of users."
Response times to user reports had slowed by 20 per cent for hateful posts and 75 per cent for hateful direct messages with X failing to provide a response to users for up to 28 hours since the takeover.
A loss of Australian staff in particular had also limited X's ability to engage with local communities disproportionately affected by online hate, like First Nations youth.
In response to the commissioner, X said it had not formally engaged with any First Nations organisations since it axed its Australian public policy and trust and safety staff and May 2023.
The platform also did not have any tools to detect "pile-ons", which are in breach of its own targeted harassment policy.
"I liken these attacks to someone trying to swat individual bees when they are engulfed by a killer swarm. It can feel quite overwhelming and be very damaging for the target,” Ms Inman Grant said.
The commissioner has been requesting information since June about what X was doing to enforce its own hateful conduct policy and meet the government's online safety expectations in relation to online hate.
X was granted two extensions to the original deadline but gave responses that were incorrect, significantly incomplete or irrelevant.
This comes after the watchdog launched legal action against the social media platform in December after it accused X of failing to report on how it met the government's Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to child sexual abuse material on the site.
It also fined X $610,500 for failing to comply with its notice to report in September, which the company has yet to pay.
