Australian Court Upholds Fine Against Elon Musk’s X

SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian court upheld an order on Friday for Elon Musk’s X to pay a fine of A$610,500 ($418,000) for failing to cooperate with a regulator’s request for information about anti-child-abuse practices.

X had challenged the fine, but the Federal Court of Australia ruled it was obliged to respond to a notice from the eSafety Commissioner, an internet safety regulator, seeking information about steps to address child sexual exploitation material on the platform.

Musk took X, formerly known as Twitter, private in 2022. However, the company argued it was not bound to respond to the notice in early 2023 because it was folded into a new Musk-controlled corporate entity, eliminating its liability.

“Had X Corp’s argument been accepted by the Court, it could have set the concerning precedent that a foreign company’s merger with another foreign company might enable it to avoid regulatory obligations in Australia,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant stated following the verdict.

eSafety has also initiated civil proceedings against X due to its noncompliance.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

This encounter is not the first conflict between Musk and the Australian internet safety regulator. Earlier this year, the eSafety Commissioner ordered X to remove posts showing a bishop in Australia being stabbed during a sermon.

X challenged the order in court, arguing that a regulator in one country should not dictate what internet users viewed globally, ultimately keeping the posts after the Australian regulator withdrew its case.

Musk previously described the order as censorship and claimed that it was a plot by the World Economic Forum to impose eSafety rules worldwide.

($1 = 1.4609 Australian dollars)