Australia asks Twitter how it will mod content without staff, gets ghosted

The Register has had some great coverage also previously:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/12/new_twitter_ceo/

"Does Yaccarino, who by all accounts appears to be a very successful exec, really want multimedia 4chan on her CV? I mean, I love watching people punch each other's lights out as much as the next guy."

Governments seem to think they have the right to tell their citizens what they can and can't see for some vague, washy terms like "safety" or "for your own good". Sure it has good intentions like removing explicit images/revenge porn, or things like CSAM - I'm all for blocking and criminally charging the posters of that content - but quickly reviewing AU's Online Safety Act, it seems to give governments the power to severely limit speech based on arbitrary definitions like "cyber bullying" and "Cyber Abuse"

Twitter should give governments full access to the "firehose" of tweets, then give them a portal/API that allows them to censor tweets based on content that the government finds offensive/against their laws with immediate results - with the caveat that Twitter shows a notice along the lines of "The government of <country> has determined this tweet to be a violation of <law name> and has been censored in your country by <country> government officials". Maybe even have a custom list of reasons that are pulled from said governments' online harm laws that governments can apply to them as part of the notice.

That way, Twitter doesn't have to have the overhead of needing "Trust and Safety" departments that have to follow every government's decrees and laws - and the governments get full access to all the tweets made on Twitter's platform with the freedom to limit what their citizens have access to (barring VPN workarounds).

If the government wants to censor/control speech, give them the tools to do it, and make sure to let everybody know that they're doing it.

Since Twitter is a US company, why should Australia have any more say over its operation than, e.g., China does?

“Hey we have this law that says you need to do this”

“That law doesn’t apply to me, no thanks.”

<screeching>

Don’t layoff staff: go bankrupt

Do layoff staff: Get regulated for lack of staff