Australian judge fines X $465,000 for online safety breach after 3-year court battle
Yahoo • • business
Key Points:
- An Australian judge fined X Corp. 650,000 Australian dollars ($465,000) for failing to provide information to the eSafety Commissioner in 2023 about handling child sexual exploitation content, also ordering the company to pay AU$100,000 ($71,000) in court costs.
- The ruling concludes a three-year legal battle in which X argued it was not required to respond to eSafety’s transparency notice issued in February 2023, which X admitted to contravening by not fully answering questions by the March 29 deadline.
- The court noted the contravention did not continue after May 5, 2023, a period marked by company changes following Elon Musk’s takeover and the merger of Twitter Inc. with X in March 2023.
- eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant emphasized the importance of transparency from tech companies in combating child sexual exploitation and providing public accountability on how such content is managed on their platforms.
- The full Federal Court had previously ruled in July 2023 that X was obliged to respond to the transparency notice, reinforcing the regulatory authority’s role in overseeing online safety compliance.