SYDNEY: Australia’s online safety watchdog announced on November 16 that it was being sued by Elon Musk’s X over the platform’s failure to define how it combats child sexual abuse content.
Last month, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant fined the firm formerly known as Twitter A$610,500 (US $388,000) for failing to answer to questions sent in February about how it is addressing the issue on its platform.
The social media behemoth missed an extended mid-November deadline to pay the fine, according to the eSafety commission, which added that it was “considering further steps” this week.
X, on the other hand, has brought the issue to Australia’s federal court.
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“X Corp has filed a petition seeking judicial review of the eSafety Commissioner’s decisions in this matter,” an eSafety Commission representative told AFP.
“ESafety continues to consider its options in relation to X Corp’s non-compliance with the reporting notice but cannot comment on legal proceedings.”
Documents have been filed with the federal court in Melbourne, and the AFP has reached out to lawyers representing X in Australia for comment.
When reached by AFP, X sent an automated email saying, “Busy now, please check back later.”
Inman Grant, a former Twitter employee, asked X last month to demonstrate that it was taking “tangible action” to clean up the network.
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“Twitter/X has stated publicly that tackling child sexual exploitation is the number one priority for the company, but it can’t just be empty talk,” she was quoted as saying at the time.
Since his takeover in October 2022, billionaire Musk has eliminated more than 80% of X’s global workforce, including many of the content moderators in charge of removing offensive content.
In the three months following the takeover, proactive detection of child sexual exploitation on X dropped from 90% to 75%, according to Inman Grant.
Australia has led the global push to regulate social media services, and Inman Grant has previously singled out X or Musk.
