Australia is threatening to fine Elon Musk's Twitter up to $475,000, saying that a third of all online hate complaints in the country come via the platform

• Australia's safety watchdog said Twitter is the most complained about platform in the country for online hate.
• It is demanding an explanation from Twitter about the issue, or it could issue a fine of up to $475,000.

Australia's safety watchdog has posted a legal notice threatening to fine Twitter up to 700,000 Australian dollars, or $475,000, if it doesn't explain how it's tackling the rise of online hate on the platform.

eSafety, Australia's regulator for online safety, announced Thursday that it has received more complaints and reports about online hate and abuse in the past 12 months on Twitter than any other platform since Elon Musk's $44 billion purchase in October 2022.

eSafety noted that rising complaints also coincided with the reduction in Twitter's global workforce, which it said may offer an explanation as to why hate messages on the platform are not being dealt with adequately.

Musk laid off roughly half the company's 8,000 employees in his first week as Twitter's CEO and spent months firing and letting go of workers at whim. There are currently an estimated 1,000 employees left at Twitter, Insider reported in May.

Additionally, the platform's trust and safety team has been in a near constant state of flux since the takeover. On his first day of owning Twitter, Musk fired the team's head, Vijaya Gadde. Her successor Yoel Roth also quit, and the team's most recent head of the team, Ella Irwin, resigned in June.

"Twitter appears to have dropped the ball on tackling hate," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said. "A third of all complaints about online hate reported to us are now happening on Twitter.

"eSafety research shows that nearly 1 in 5 Australians have experienced some form of online hate. This level of online abuse is already inexcusably high, but if you're a First Nations Australian, you are disabled or identify as LGBTIQ+ you experience online hate at double the rate of the rest of the population."

"We are also aware of reports that the reinstatement of some of these previously banned accounts has emboldened extreme polarisers, peddlers of outrage and hate, including neo-Nazis both in Australia and overseas."

One research group even found that the use of the N-word jumped by 500% on Twitter after Musk's takeover, Insider reported in October.

Twitter has 28 days to respond to the notice or faces a hefty fine, which eSafety said could be as high as AU$700,000, or $475,000.

Insider contacted Twitter for comment but received an automated message that provided no context about the situation.

Musk stepped down as CEO of Twitter in June and was succeeded by former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino.