Elon Musk’s X Corp must pay fine, Australian court says

An Australian court has ruled that Elon Musk’s social media platform

In Australia, all social media companies must be able to explain how they meet basic online safety requirements as set out by the government.

Musk’s company had filed a petition to have the fine dropped, but a judge ordered on Friday, October 4, that they had to pay for all procedures.

X argued that it was not mandatory to respond to a message from the Australian government to Twitter after Musk had purchased the site and had converted it into a new business entity, so that liability was lifted.

“Had X Corp’s argument been accepted by the Court, it could have set the precedent that the merger of one foreign company with another foreign company could allow it to avoid legal obligations in Australia,” said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.

The Federal Court today ruled that X Corp. was obliged to respond to a transparency notice requesting information on measures to address the dissemination of child sexual exploitation material on its platform. Read more: https://t.co/69HsSsDgMx pic.twitter.com/3a8GN740UZ

— eSafety Commissioner (@eSafetyOffice) October 4, 2024

This isn’t the first time Musk has clashed with the Australian government

Australia has increased pressure on global tech companies to better police content on their platforms. Elon Musk in particular has clashed with regulators in the country. In January this year, Elon Musk caught their attention when

In April, following two tragic stabbing incidents in Australia, the government ordered social media platforms to remove videos of the attacks. Meta complied, but The regulator eventually withdrew its case and the posts remained in place.

More recently, Australia announced plans in September to issue fines of up to 5 percent of a platform’s global revenue for its failure to adequately prevent the spread of disinformation. Elon Musk responded by calling them fascists.

Sky News reported that as a result of this “war” with Musk, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has faced online harassment, including death threats.

Featured image: Midjourney

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