REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationSYDNEY, Feb 23 (Reuters) - An Australian regulator has sent legal letters to Twitter and Google telling them to hand over information about their efforts to stop online child abuse, drawing them into a crackdown that has already put pressure on other global tech firms.
She said it was in Twitter's interests to show that it was acting effectively to eradicate child sexual abuse material, otherwise advertisers could turn away from the company.
Apart from writing to Twitter, the commissioner also sent letters to Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google, owner of YouTube and the file storage unit Google Drive, and China's TikTok.
Last year, the commissioner sent similar notices to Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Facebook owner Meta Platforms (META.O).
read moreInman Grant said a 2020 joint investigation with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection found widespread publicly-available abuse material on Twitter, which those authorities reported to Twitter's head of trust and safety.