Australia's eSafety Commissioner says Twitter is in for a "bumpy ride" under Elon Musk and has written to the self-dubbed "chief twit", expressing concern about the new direction of the social media platform.
The billionaire tech mogul is preparing to overhaul some of the platform's key policies, including around content moderation and verification.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant — who previously worked in policy and safety at Twitter — told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday that the move could jeopardise safety online, and allow misinformation to flourish.
"If the first week of the chief twit's tenure is any indication, I think they have a bumpy ride ahead of them," Ms Inman Grant said.
"It's said that content moderation is not rocket science but in some ways it's more complex and nuanced than that."
The world's richest man has taken out more than $30 billion in loans to buy Twitter, and already sacked thousands of staff, including some in Australia.
Greens' senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, said she was worried about the ramifications the lay-offs could have for safety.
Ms Inman Grant agreed that she was concerned about the new direction of Twitter, particularly when the company had difficulty keeping up with content moderation before its sale.
"Either people are going to have to do two or three people's jobs or things are going to inevitably fall through the cracks, and that's a grave concern," she said.
"This is a complex operational eco-system, so we need to know that we have people [who] we can interface [with] here and [who] are looking after Australians' concerns and providing those back to HQ," she said.
Ms Inman Grant wants clarification about whether Twitter would be recognising Australian laws, responding to regulatory requests and maintaining escalation paths.
Mr Musk has said he intends to scrap the "blue tick" verification system, in favour of a premium subscription service costing around $8 per month.
Ms Inman Grant worked on the verification system in its infancy, and said it protected people in the public eye.
"It will be a total dog's breakfast if anyone can impersonate any individual, any agency, particularly when we expect it to be an official agency," she said.
"Not only will [it] not provide those protections, but I think it can open the platform up to much more malfeasance, impersonation and fake accounts and, possibly, state-sponsored information operations as well.
"We need more safety reinforcement, not less, and it makes everyone on the platform vulnerable."
