Melbourne, Australia – An Australian judge recently hit Elon Musk‘s social media platform X with a massive fine for refusing to provide the country’s government with information on how the site handles online child abuse material.
According to NBC News, Federal Court Justice Michael Wheelahan fined X Corp. 650,000 Australian dollars ($465,000) for contravening the country’s Online Safety Act by not answering questions included in a transparency notice issued by the watchdog group eSafety on Feb. 22, 2023.
The company will now have 45 days to pay the fine, ending a three-year court battle.
X had initially fought against the lawsuit, arguing that it didn’t have to provide the information because when the notice was sent, the company was still under its previous name, Twitter.
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But the company recently abandoned the argument, instead saying that they were going through “a period of change and transition” at the time, as Musk had just purchased Twitter, eventually changing it to X.
Both X and eSafety agreed on Thursday that the judge’s fine was appropriate.
In a statement, eSafety commissioner and former Twitter employee Julie Inman Grant explained the group aimed to stop “the proliferation of child sexual exploitation and abuse materials” on social media.
“This is not only a key part of our work as Australia’s online safety regulator, it also provides the Australian public with important information about how these companies are tackling the worst-of-the-worst content on their platforms,” she added.
