The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (Aman) argues that as a publisher Twitter is responsible for content posted by a far-right account that has been cited in the manifesto of the extremist who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.

The network says despite multiple requests, Twitter has refused to delete the account and replies to its posts that “vilify” Muslims. These include comments such as “Ramadan means killing infidels” and claims that the Qur’an should be referred to as the “terrorist handbook”. Comments cited in the complaint refer to the Qur’an as “this satanic memoir” and to Islam as “the most violent and sexually perverse cult”.

The network has accused Twitter under Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act of inciting hatred as a publisher of third-party accounts, as well as discrimination for refusing to take action against hateful content. Its complaint also says Twitter has engaged in indirect discrimination by failing to apply Australian standards to content on its platform.

The network says it engaged with Twitter between July 2020 to July 2021. Aman says it asked the platform to remove several accounts that were inciting hatred but Twitter refused to act, saying the accounts were assessed to be “consistent with their policies”. The complaint before the Commission contains 419 items, including 29 tweets it claims incited hatred and 390 comments and quotes on those tweets.

Source: The Guardian