X looks to clarify power of eSafety, online safety laws in Federal Court
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Elon Musk's X wants clarification from the Federal Court of Australia over aspects of its Administrative Appeals Tribunal battle with the online safety regulator.
The context: In a procedural hearing late on Tuesday, Thomson Geer partner Justin Quill said his client, X, wanted to clarify the power of the Online Safety Act and the eSafety Commissioner in issuing legal notices requiring platforms to show what steps they take to protect users from online extremism.
Both X and eSafety have until 4pm on 6 September to file a joint application for questions in their dispute to be referred to the Federal Court.
The eSafety Commissioner issued legal notices in March to Google, Meta, Reddit, Telegram, WhatsApp and X, requiring each company to report on the steps they take to protect Australians from terrorist and violent extremist material and activity.
The regulator said this month it would publish "appropriate findings in due course" to those notices, which were issued after none of the companies chose to provide the steps through an existing voluntary system provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The source: Administrative Appeals Tribunal
