Twitter has provided details of its strategies for tackling disinformation and misinformation in Australia. However, it has refrained from publishing specific data on content removal and the sharing of customer data with authorities.
In its report on compliance with the voluntary industry code for combatting false and harmful content in Australia, Twitter defended its “new products and policies” aimed at safeguarding user rights and safety. However, unlike other signatories to the Australian Code of Practice on Misinformation and Disinformation, Twitter did not include statistics on enforcement actions.
Meta (formerly Facebook) reported removing “91,000 pieces of content across Facebook and Instagram in Australia for violating our Harmful Health Misinformation policies,” while Microsoft’s Bing implemented “defensive search interventions” in response to 45,100 Ukraine-related queries in 2022.
Twitter’s decision to omit enforcement actions from its industry code report follows its April announcement to cease publishing biannual transparency reports containing such data. Although Twitter released global takedown figures for last year, it stopped providing a breakdown by country.
Google, Meta, And TikTok Transparency Reports
In contrast, Google, Meta, and TikTok published transparency reports last month, revealing their compliance with thousands of requests from the Australian government to disclose customer data and remove content.
The report acknowledged Twitter’s transformational change in Q4 2022 and the discontinuation of some data due to the new direction of the platform. However, the Communications Minister and eSafety Commissioner have criticized Twitter 2.0 for failing to cooperate with Australia’s regulations concerning the detection and removal of harmful content.
The report outlined “new approaches,” including community notes, Twitter Blue subscription, and open-sourced algorithms, aimed at moving beyond a simplistic approach of leaving content up or taking it down. However, these approaches do not meet the requirements of Australia’s content moderation regime, which obliges companies to block or remove content deemed harmful by agencies under legislation like the Online Safety Act 2021 and the Telecommunications Act 1997.
Prioritizing tweets from verified users helps in tackling scams
Twitter mentioned that Australian users were contributing annotations to misleading tweets, with enough positive ratings from diverse viewpoints resulting in the public display of community notes on the tweet.
While the report did not provide case studies, community notes have successfully made corrections to high-profile instances of misinformation in Australia, exposing inaccuracies posted by Energy Minister Chris Bowen and misrepresentations of other parties’ policies by Minister for Housing Colin Brooks.
Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, which costs $13 per month and amplifies subscribers’ tweets, was highlighted as a measure to combat disinformation. The report claimed that prioritizing tweets from verified users helps in tackling scams and spam.