Australian Court Upholds X Corp Fine Over Child Protection Response
An Australian court has upheld a fine against Elon Musk’s social media company X Corp after the platform admitted breaching the country’s online safety laws by failing to provide information about its child protection measures.
The ruling ends a dispute that lasted nearly three years between X and Australia’s eSafety regulator, which has frequently clashed with Musk over online content moderation and platform accountability.
Court Confirms Breach of Online Safety Act
The case centred on a request from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner seeking information about X’s processes to combat child exploitation online. The regulator later fined the company in October 2023, arguing that its response failed to meet legal requirements under the country’s Online Safety Act.
During a Federal Court hearing, lawyer Christopher Tran, representing the eSafety Commissioner, said the company admitted it had breached the legislation.
“The respondent admits that it contravened the Act,” Tran told the court.
He added that the company remained non-compliant for around 38 days after the request was issued.
Dispute Stemmed From Information Request
The regulator originally fined the company, then still operating under the Twitter name, A$610,500 over its responses to roughly 25 questions related to anti-child exploitation procedures.
X initially attempted to overturn the penalty by arguing that the company’s corporate identity had changed after Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 and rebranded it as X Corp.
The regulator later launched separate legal action to recover the unpaid fine.
On Thursday, Judge Michael Wheelahan increased the amount payable to A$650,000. The court also ordered X to pay an additional A$100,000 towards the regulator’s legal costs.
X Says Delays Happened During Company Transition
X lawyer Perry Herzfeld argued the dispute related to “historic issues relating to the timeliness of provision of information”.
He told the court that the conduct occurred during a “period of change and transition for the company”.
Tran acknowledged there was no direct loss caused by the company’s actions. However, he stressed that failing to provide information to a regulator affected the agency’s ability to carry out its responsibilities effectively.
The decision closes one of the remaining legal disputes involving X in Australia after the company was folded earlier this year into Musk’s broader technology operations linked to SpaceX.
With inputs from Reuters
