Australian regulator demands social media firms disclose anti-terrorism efforts

SYDNEY - An Australian regulator has sent legal letters to social media platforms, from YouTube, X and Facebook to Telegram and Reddit, demanding they hand over information about their efforts to stamp out terrorism content.

The e-Safety Commission said it was concerned the platforms were not doing enough to stop extremists from using live-streaming features, algorithms and recommendation systems to recruit users.

Since 2022, the regulator has had the power to demand big tech firms give information about the prevalence of illegal content and their measures to prevent that content from spreading. Failure to do so can result in hefty fines.

Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Telegram was the most-used platform by violent extremist groups to radicalise and recruit.

The Dubai-based messaging service, which a 2022 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report ranked at No. 1 for frequency of terrorism content, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

“We don’t know if they actually have the people and resources in place to even be able to respond to these notices, but we will see,” Ms Inman Grant told Reuters in an interview.

“We’re not going to be afraid to take it as far as we need to, to get the answers we need or to find them out of compliance and fine them,” she added.

She also said second-ranked YouTube “has the power through their clever algorithms to spread propaganda broadly... in a very overt way or a very subtle way that sends people down rabbit holes”.

Subjects considered terrorism ranged from responses to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to violent conspiracy theories to “misogynistic tropes that spill over into real-world violence against women”, she added.

The regulator has previously sent legal letters to platforms seeking information about the handling of child abuse material and hate speech, but its anti-terrorism blitz has been the most complex because of the wide range of content and methods of amplifying content, Ms Inman Grant said.

Mr Elon Musk’s X was handed the first e-Safety fine in 2023 over its response to questions about its handling of child abuse content. It is challenging the US$386,000 (S$516,000) fine in the court.

The commission targeted Telegram and chat forum website Reddit for the first time in this round of legal letters, sent on March 18.

A white supremacist who killed 10 black people in 2022 in Buffalo, New York, has said Reddit contributed to his radicalisation.

Reddit, X and YouTube owner Alphabet were not immediately available for comment.

A spokesperson for Facebook owner Meta said the company was reviewing the commission’s notices and that “there is no place on our platforms for terrorism, extremism, or any promotion of violence or hate”. REUTERS