Twitter is being asked by an Australian authority to provide data on preventing online child abuse.
An Australian authority that has pressured other global technology corporations has now addressed legal papers to Twitter and Google, requesting them to give over data about their efforts to curb "online child abuse."
The agency is based in Australia. This proposal comes after the authority in Australia has already put pressure on other corporations worldwide that are involved in the technology industry. This request comes after the regulatory body in Australia has already exerted pressure on other companies around the world that work in the technology sector.
The action taken by the country's e-safety commissioner emphasizes the anti-exploitation measures put into place at "Twitter" under the new ownership of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has stated that "child protection" is his primary concern.
"Elon Musk declaring child sexual abuse a major priority, here is a chance for him to explain what he is truly doing," said e-safety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, referring to tweets sent out by Musk. "here is a chance for him to explain what he is truly doing," she added. She said this presents "an opportunity for him to explain what he is indeed doing."
She said that Twitter is taking this step because it is in the company's best interest to demonstrate that it is actively trying to remove content that glorifies the sexual exploitation of children. She explained that this type of content might frighten away potential sponsors who would otherwise support Twitter.
Grant, who had previously worked as the public policy director for the microblogging site up until 2016, stated that the responses from more prominent technology companies, in addition to allegations that Twitter's content filtering has become laxer since Musk took over as CEO, encouraged her to make this move. She left her position in 2016 to pursue other opportunities.
In addition to sending a letter to Twitter, the commissioner also sent letters similar to Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., the person who owns YouTube, and TikTok, which has its headquarters in China.
In response to the letter, Google's senior manager of government affairs and public policy, Samantha Yorke, stated that "we utilize a range of industry-standard scanning techniques including hash-matching technology and artificial intelligence to identify and remove (child abuse material) that has been uploaded to our services.
"We employ several industry scanning methods, including hash-matching technologies such as ai, to detect and delete (child abuse content) that has been uploaded, according to Yorke, who was reported as saying so. The remark that Yorke said was a response to the letters that had been delivered.
