X was hit with a fine of 610,500 Australian dollars, which is equivalent to over $380,000, by Australia's eSafety commissioner for not providing adequate information regarding their procedures for tackling child abuse material. The commissioner noted "serious deficiencies" in the ways that other tech giants such as TikTok, Twitch and Discord police content featuring child exploitation. Elon Musk has declared his commitment to decreasing child abuse imagery, yet internal documents have demonstrated that he has fired safety personnel and monitors from the firm.
The eSafety Commissioner in Australia issued a fine of AU$610,500 (around US$380,000) to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday, for failing to adequately divulge information about how it manages child abuse content. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant expressed that "Twitter/X has publicly proclaimed that tackling child sexual exploitation is the primary mission of the company, but this cannot be mere words. It needs to be supported by tangible action." X has been granted 28 days in which to either respond to the penalty or pay it. The amount may be miniscule for a multibillion-dollar tech platform, but it is yet another setback for a firm which has already received criticism for its moderation practices after being acquired and rebranded by Elon Musk.
The fine was imposed on the basis of Australia's Online Safety Act of 2021, which necessitates online service providers to provide accounts of how they tackle child abuse content. The firms can be subjected to civil sanctions for any failure to observe this reporting requirement. In February, Australia's eSafety office sent a legal memorandum to X, then operating as Twitter, as well as to other tech companies such as Google, TikTok, Twitch and Discord. The memo posed particular queries in relation to how the companies govern child exploitation material. The eSafety Commissioner declared that X failed to answer many of these inquiries and left some sections in its reply completely blank.
It was not solely X that the eSafety office raised issues with. The office noticed "significant shortfalls" in the way five platforms it sent legal notices to handled child abuse content. Google received a formal warning for its generic answers to detailed questions. Nevertheless, the Commissioner established that X was fined because its absence of compliance with the Australian reporting standards was more serious. For example, X refused to give information concerning the length of time it takes to respond to child abuse reports, the system it uses to detect child sexual exploitation on the platform, and the number of employees it has in its safety and public policy teams.
In December 2022, NBC News and CNBC obtained internal records showing that around 25 staff members held titles regarding "Trust and Safety" out of a total of 1,600 employees then at the firm.
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