X loses case against eSafety over child sexual abuse material notice
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The news: Social media platform X has lost its lawsuit against 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.
During court hearing's last month, lawyers for X raised the question of whether the notice could apply to X, when it did not exist at the time of the notice and Twitter subsequently ceased to exist.
Federal Court of Australia Judge Michael Wheelahan rejected this argument in his 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: "X Corp has failed on all its claims," Wheelahan said in his written judgment.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said: "Had X Corp’s argument been accepted by the court it could have set the concerning precedent that a foreign company’s merger with another foreign company might enable it to avoid regulatory obligations in Australia".
The sources: Federal Court of Australia , eSafety media release
