An Australian court has affirmed a financial penalty imposed on Elon Musk’s social media company, X Corp, after the platform conceded it failed to comply with child online safety requirements, bringing an extended three-year legal dispute to a close.
Australia’s online safety watchdog, eSafety, originally issued the fine in 2023 after X did not adequately respond to a formal request seeking details on how it was addressing the exploitation of children online. The regulator said the company failed to provide sufficient transparency regarding its safety measures.
X Corp challenged the enforcement action, arguing that it was not obligated to comply with the request because it had been issued before Twitter—its former identity—merged into X Corp, claiming that Twitter no longer existed as a separate legal entity at the time.
On Thursday, however, the company admitted wrongdoing. The court ordered X Corp to pay a revised penalty of A$650,000 (about $463,000 or £345,000). Justice Michael Wheelahan also increased the original fine from A$610,000 and directed the company to pay an additional A$100,000 toward the regulator’s legal expenses.
“A penalty near the maximum is appropriate in the case of the respondent, which is a substantial corporation so that it operates as a real deterrent and is not simply a cost of doing business,” Wheelahan said.
The ruling follows a history of friction between Australia’s eSafety Commission and X, including disputes over the country’s pioneering restrictions on social media use for children under 16 and disagreements over the removal of violent content, including footage of a stabbing incident in a Sydney church.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has also previously faced personal backlash. She told the BBC in 2024 that she received death threats and that her children were doxxed after Musk referred to her as the “censorship commissar” in a post shared with his 196 million followers.
In a statement released on Thursday, Grant stressed the importance of accountability from major technology companies, saying: “Meaningful transparency is critical to holding technology companies to account.”
The original transparency request was first issued to Twitter in February 2023, shortly before the platform’s transition into X. Last year, the court upheld a prior ruling requiring the company to comply with the notice, and on Thursday both parties agreed to the final penalty, which must be paid within 45 days.
