Musk’s X Loses Australia Child Safety Case

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has lost a nearly three-year dispute with Australia’s online safety regulator after admitting that it failed to provide requested information about measures against child sexual exploitation online.

The Australian eSafety Commissioner fined the company in 2023 for failing to answer questions about child protection. Federal Court Justice Michael Wheelahan has now raised the penalty to A$650,000 ($465,000) and ordered X to pay part of the regulator’s legal costs.

A lawyer for the authority said the company had breached the law for 38 days. A lawyer for X argued that the issue related to a period of change after Musk bought Twitter in 2022.

The eSafety Commissioner is among the frequent targets of public criticism by Musk. The dispute began after Australian authorities deemed the company’s responses to questions about child protection inadequate.

(reuters, bak)