In a new transparency report released by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, information provided by X Corp., the owner of social media platform Twitter/X, indicates the company has made deep cuts to safety and public policy personnel, with serious implications for online hate in Australia and around the world.
X Corp. said Twitter/X’s global trust and safety staff have been reduced by a third, including an 80 per cent reduction in the number of safety engineers, since the company was acquired in October 2022.
The company also said the number of moderators it directly employs on the platform have been reduced by more than half, while the number of global public policy staff have also been reduced by almost 80 per cent.
While the company has previously given estimates of the reduction in staffing, this is the first time X Corp. has given specific figures on where the reductions were made. Given the global nature of the Twitter/X service, these cuts to key safety and public policy roles have clear implications for Australian users.
Haters back
X Corp. also said it had reinstated over 6,100 previously banned accounts since the October 2022 acquisition, 194 of which were previously suspended by the platform for hateful conduct violations. eSafety understands the figures provided by X Corp. relate to accounts in Australia, rather than globally.
This contrasts with media reports that over 62,000 previously suspended accounts were reinstated globally. The global number of account reinstatements is significant as international accounts can and do target Australian users. And despite these accounts previously breaching Twitter/X’s rules, X Corp. said it did not place any of these accounts under additional scrutiny following their reinstatement.
In June, eSafety issued a legal notice to X Corp. under Australia’s Online Safety Act seeking specific information about what Twitter/X was doing to meet the Australian Government’s Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to online hate and enforce its own hateful conduct policy. The transparency report summarises the company’s response to those questions.
Increasingly toxic
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said, ‘It’s almost inevitable that any social media platform will become more toxic and less safe for users if you combine significant reductions to safety and local public policy personnel with thousands of account reinstatements of previously banned users.
‘You’re really creating a bit of a perfect storm,’ Ms Inman Grant said.
‘A number of these reinstated users were previously banned for online hate. 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.
‘We also see from X Corp.’s responses to our questions that the reduction in safety staff coincided with slower response times when users reported online hate to the platform. Response times to hateful tweets have slowed by 20 per cent since the acquisition and response times to hateful direct messages have slowed by 75 per cent, with users not receiving a response for up to 28 hours.
‘We know from that online abuse is frequently targeted at victims via services’ direct message features, with clear intent to cause harm.
Australian implications
‘Loss of local staff in Australia also limits the potential for engaging local communities disproportionately impacted by online hate. A recent eSafety study found that First Nations youth are three times more likely to experience hate speech online than their non-indigenous counterparts,’ said Ms Inman Grant.
X Corp. stated in response to the Notice that it had not formally engaged with any First Nations organisations between when it ceased having public policy/trust and safety staff in Australia, and May 2023 (the date in the notice) but that it had previously engaged with a wide range of First Nations organisations and individuals over many years.
Ms Inman Grant said, ‘Understanding nuance and the unique cultural context of Australian communities is important to ensure platforms can tackle the online harms that can manifest and damage local communities.’
In the report, X Corp. also stated that it had no full-time staff specifically dedicated to hateful conduct issues globally, and no specific team for this policy during the period covered by the notice, although it said it had broader teams who worked on these issues.
Killer swarms
When eSafety asked what tools were used to detect volumetric attacks or ‘pile-on’s’ in breach of Twitter’s targeted harassment policy, X Corp. stated that no tools were specifically designed to detect this type of abuse on the service.
‘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 full transparency report can be found here.
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