Elon Musk’s social media platform X has been ordered to pay $750,000 after it admitted to failing to properly respond to questions about online child sexual exploitation and abuse material.
The federal court sided with Australia’s eSafety regulator this week, ordering X to pay a $650,000 penalty, plus $100,000 in legal costs.
The ruling marks the end of a legal battle stretching back almost three years and represents a significant moment in Australia’s attempts to regulate global tech giants.
At the centre of the dispute was a 2023 transparency notice issued by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, asking what was then Twitter to explain how it was tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse material online.
When Musk acquired Twitter and rebranded it as X, the company argued it was no longer legally bound by the original notice because Twitter no longer existed as a corporate entity.
The Federal Court rejected that argument. Justice Michael Wheelahan found X remained responsible for complying with Australia’s Online Safety Act obligations. The company ultimately admitted it had breached the Act by failing to adequately respond within the required timeframe. According to the court, there was 38 days of non-compliance.
“A penalty near the maximum is appropriate in the case of the respondent, which is a substantial corporation so that it operates as a real deterrent and is not simply a cost of doing business,” said Justice Michael Wheelahan during the ruling.
After the decision was handed down, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said meaningful transparency is critical to holding technology companies to account.
“In early 2023, we asked some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Twitter, to report on steps they were taking to comply with the Australian Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to the proliferation of child sexual exploitation and abuse materials on their platforms,” she said.
“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.”
For years, Musk has framed Australia’s attempts to regulate X as censorship and has repeatedly clashed publicly with the eSafety Commissioner. One of the key examples of this came in 2024, when the eSafety Commissioner tried to force X to remove footage of the Wakeley church stabbing from the platform.
Just recently, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told Women’s Agenda the current online environment is driven by a word she coined “outragement”, a cycle where platforms amplify outrage because it fuels engagement, attention and profit.
“What really concerns me is the convergence of a range of malign forces,” Inman Grant said.
“It’s not only the wealth and power that is concentrated in a few hands. Seventy per cent of the major social media and AI companies are controlled by male billionaires. The same billionaires who were front and centre at the inauguration, one who actually had a desk in the government via DOGE,” she said.