X appeals court loss over child sexual abuse material notice
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The news: Social media platform X has returned to Federal Court to appeal its loss in a lawsuit brought by the online safety regulator over a transparency notice issued to the company when it was still called Twitter, regarding child sexual abuse material.
The context: eSafety issued the notice to X when it was branded as Twitter, in February 2023, raising questions about measures it has in place to deal with child sexual abuse. Twitter rebranded as X in July 2023.
Other tech platforms, Google, TikTok, Twitch and Discord, were also issued with notices at the time.
X's subsequent alleged failure to comply with the notice and the payment of a $610,500 fine has prompted a separate civil lawsuit from eSafety against the company, which is ongoing.
Federal Court of Australia Judge Michael Wheelahan rejected this argument in his October judgment, saying that the status of a foreign company extended beyond "mere existence" and included the liabilities attached to a company, which X acquired when Elon Musk acquired Twitter and subsequently renamed it.
What they said: In a statement to Capital Brief, a spokesperson for eSafety said the regulator "will seek that his Honour Justice Wheelahan’s judgment (4 October 2024) be upheld."
The source: Federal Court
