Overview
- X conceded in Federal Court on Thursday that it contravened Australia’s Online Safety Act by failing to provide timely, complete answers to a transparency notice about measures to combat child sexual exploitation.
- The dispute began when eSafety sent about 25 questions in February 2023 and escalated after Twitter merged into X Corp in March 2023, with the court finding roughly 38 days of noncompliance from March 29 to May 5, 2023.
- Australia’s eSafety Commissioner issued an infringement notice in October 2023 for A$610,500 and pursued the matter through successive court challenges that X lost in October 2024 and again in July 2025.
- Federal Justice Michael Wheelahan raised the penalty to A$650,000 and added A$100,000 in costs, saying a near‑maximum fine was needed so a company of X’s size treats the breach as more than a cost of doing business.
- The ruling affirms the regulator’s statutory power to demand transparency from overseas platforms, increases scrutiny on X as it was folded into SpaceX ahead of a planned IPO, and sets a precedent for cross‑border enforcement of online safety rules.