Australian court upholds order for Musk’s X to pay fine over anti-child abuse inquiry
An Australian court upheld an order for Elon Musk’s X to pay a fine for failing to cooperate with a regulator’s request for information about anti-child-abuse practices.
SYDNEY, Australia — A court in Australia upheld an order on Friday for Elon Musk’s X to pay a fine of 610,500 Australian dollars ($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 that 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 social media platform.
Musk took X, then called Twitter, private in 2022. The company had argued that it was not bound to respond to the notice in early 2023 because it was folded into a new Musk-controlled corporate entity, removing 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 said in a statement following the verdict.
eSafety has also started civil proceedings against X because of its noncompliance.
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