Elon Musk’s harmful.
The Australian Electronic Safety Commission approached Twitter in February 2023, asking the company to explain how it tackles the spread of child sexual abuse content.
The following month, Twitter was merged into Musk’s newly formed X Corp, which was ultimately fined for its “inadequate” response to the commission’s repeated inquiries.
X Corp argued in the Federal Court of Australia that it did not need to respond because the commission had first targeted Twitter, a company that no longer exists.
“X Corp failed on all of its claims,” Judge Michael Wheelahan found in a decision issued Friday.
Electronic Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant – a former Twitter employee – welcomed the court’s decision.
“If X Corp’s argument is accepted by the court, it could set a worrying precedent that merging one foreign company with another foreign company could help that company avoid its obligations legal in Australia.”
Inman Grant previously said X’s efforts to rid the platform of graphic sexual and violent content were just “empty talk”.
The commission must now wage a separate legal battle to enforce the fine – one of many skirmishes between the Australian government and tech mogul Musk.
Musk compares the Australian government to “fascists” earlier this year, attacked proposed laws that would penalize social media giants for failing to stop the spread of misinformation.
In June, X fought back against a separate legal action brought by the Australian Electronic Safety Commission.
The watchdog has sought a global takedown order forcing X to remove “extremely violent” videos showing the stabbing of a preacher in Sydney.
But it dropped the case after a preliminary hearing, a move Musk hailed as a victory for free speech.
Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has clashed with politicians and digital rights groups around the world, including the European Union. Europe, which could decide to take action against X within a few months and could impose a fine.
In Brazil, where X was suspended after ignoring a series of court directives, Musk responded by criticizing the judge as an “evil dictator masquerading as a judge.”
