Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has been fined A$610,500 (approximately $386,000) by the Australian e-Safety Commission for failing to cooperate with an investigation into its anti-child abuse practices.
This fine comes as a blow to the platform, which has faced declining revenue and criticism for its content moderation policies.
The e-Safety Commission has imposed a fine on the platform previously known as Twitter, now rebranded as X under Elon Musk’s ownership. The fine was a result of X’s failure to provide satisfactory responses to inquiries about how it handles reports of child abuse material and its methods for detecting such content. This lack of cooperation has raised concerns about X’s commitment to combatting illegal content.
Although the fine is relatively small compared to the $44 billion Musk paid to acquire the platform in October 2022, it has dealt a significant blow to X’s reputation. Advertisers have been reducing their spending on the platform due to its reduced content moderation and the reinstatement of previously banned accounts.
Additionally, the European Union has launched an investigation into X for potential violations of tech rules, especially regarding disinformation related to Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The Australian e-Safety Commission has the authority to compel internet companies to disclose information about their online safety practices, with fines as a consequence for non-compliance. If X refuses to pay the fine, the regulator can take the matter to court.
Despite Musk’s claims that “removing child exploitation is priority #1” after taking the company private, the regulator found inconsistencies in X’s responses. For instance, X stated that it was “not a service used by large numbers of young people” when asked about its efforts to prevent child grooming. X also mentioned that the available anti-grooming technology was not sufficiently capable or accurate for deployment on the platform.
The e-Safety Commission also issued a warning to Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, for its non-compliance with requests for information about its handling of child abuse content. Some of Google’s responses were deemed “generic.” Google expressed its disappointment with the warning and reaffirmed its commitment to collaborating on online safety.
However, X’s noncompliance with the regulator’s requests was considered more serious. X failed to provide answers to questions about its response time to child abuse reports, its efforts to detect abuse in live streams, and its staffing numbers for content moderation, safety, and public policy. X confirmed that it had reduced 80% of its global workforce and had no public policy staff in Australia following Musk’s takeover. The platform also indicated that it did not use tools to detect child abuse material in private messages due to the technology still being in development.
