Photo credit: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

After the whole Brazil and X conflict, Elon Musk’s social media platform is once again under fire, this time from the Australian government. 

The Federal Court has today ruled X Corp. must respond to a transparency notice and pay a fine of $418,000. This notice seeks information about the steps X Corp. is taking to combat the spread of child sexual exploitation material on its platform.

Under the ruling of His Honour Justice Michael Weelahan, X Corp. has been further ordered to pay eSafety’s costs. According to the ruling, the Court had rejected X Corp’s argument of not having to respond because eSafety’s notice was given to the former entity Twitter Inc. in February 2023. 

The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, stated: “Early last year, we asked some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Twitter, to report on steps they were taking to comply with the Australian Government’s Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to child sexual exploitation and abuse material on their platforms.”

“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.”

Back in September, Australian regulators planned to fine Internet platforms up to 5% of their global revenue for failing to prevent the spread of misinformation. The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, responded with one word, calling them “fascists.”

However, in this scenario, the community and regulators are still awaiting a response from Elon Musk regarding the latest court hearing.