Aself-confessed fan of the Indian Prime Minister, and a man who ought to have been chuffed at the welcome he got from Mr Narendra Modi this week, finds himself in the eye of a storm in distant Australia where a company he acquired last year has been described as the most complained-about platform for disseminating online hate. The notice issued to Twitter by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner asks the platform to explain its handling of online hate. If Twitter fails to respond within 28 days, it will be liable to pay a fine of A$700,000 (Rs 3.88 crore) per day. Upon acquiring Twitter last October, Mr. Musk had promised to restore its commitment to free speech.

One consequence of this resolve was that bans were lifted on some 62,000 accounts, and, as Australian authorities have noted, some have resorted to egregious misuse of the country’s free speech laws. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said this week that she issued notice to Twitter after noting that fully onethird of the complaints she received related to the social media giant. “Twitter appears to have dropped the ball on tackling hate. We need accountability from these platforms and action to protect their users and you cannot have accountability without transparency”, Ms Inman Grant has said. Twitter has been asked to explain its impact assessments when reinstating banned accounts; how it engaged with communities that faced online hate and how it enforced its own policies towards hateful conduct. Noting that Twitter had always been fiery in its discourse, she said the reinstatement of hitherto banned accounts, done at Mr.Musk’s behest, had turned it into a “bin of fire”.

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Ms Inman Grant told an Australian broadcaster, “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.” Twitter’s policy on online hate is ambiguous to say the least. While it says it is “committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized”, it also says: “Free expression is a human right ~ we believe that everyone has a voice, and the right to use it.” Straddling two stools is always a difficult proposition, and Twitter, Australian authorities believe, has failed to strike a balance between its two positions, while allowing free rein to hate speech. Countries such as India that have borne the consequences of the dissemination of hate and falsehood on social media would do well to observe developments in Australia. Sometimes, even fans need a rap on the knuckles.