Elon Musk's X fined A$610,500 over non-compliance in child-abuse probe

Elon Musk's social media platform, X, has been fined A$610,500 (approximately $386,000) by the Australian e-Safety Commission for failing to cooperate with an investigation into its anti-child abuse practices. 

This fine comes as a blow to the platform, which has faced declining revenue and criticism for its content moderation policies.

The e-Safety Commission imposed the fine on X, the platform previously known as Twitter before Musk's rebranding, due to its failure to respond to questions regarding its handling of reports of child abuse material and the methods it used to detect such content. The platform's lack of cooperation with the probe has raised concerns about its commitment to tackling illegal content.

While the fine is relatively small compared to the $44 billion Musk paid for the platform in October 2022, it is a significant reputational hit for X. Advertisers have been reducing their spending on the platform as it has curtailed most content moderation and reinstated many previously banned accounts.

The European Union recently initiated an investigation into X for potential violations of its tech rules, particularly concerning disinformation related to Hamas's attack on Israel.

The Australian e-Safety Commission has the authority to compel internet companies to provide information about their online safety practices, and failing to comply can result in fines. If X refuses to pay the fine, the regulator can pursue the matter in court.

Despite Musk's claims that "removing child exploitation is priority #1" after taking the company private, the regulator found discrepancies in X's responses. The platform asserted that it was "not a service used by large numbers of young people" when asked about its efforts to prevent child grooming. X also stated that the available anti-grooming technology was not sufficiently capable or accurate for deployment on the platform.

The e-Safety Commission also issued a warning to Alphabet's Google for noncompliance with its request for information on handling child abuse content, deeming some of Google's responses "generic." Google expressed its disappointment with the warning and affirmed its commitment to collaborating on online safety.

X's noncompliance with the regulator's requests was deemed more serious, as it failed to answer questions about its response time to child abuse reports, its efforts to detect abuse in live streams, and its staffing numbers for content moderation, safety, and public policy.

The platform confirmed that it had cut 80% of its global workforce and had no public policy staff in Australia following Musk's takeover. X also indicated that it did not use tools to detect child abuse material in private messages due to the technology still being in development.