X’s failure to detail measures to tackle child exploitation material leads to fine and now lawsuit

The eSafety Commissioner is suing X after it failed to show how it tackles child sexual exploitation material on the platform, then refused to pay a fine for that failure.

Elon Musk has seen the value of his stake in X more than halve in just more than a year.

The eSafety Commissioner is suing X for more than $600,000 after the platform failed to detail its measures to tackle child sexual exploitation material, then failed to pay a subsequent fine for that failure.

The Commissioner issued X with a fine of $610,500 earlier this year after the platform failed to detail properly - and in some cases did not answer questions at all - about the measures it has in place to limit the proliferation of child sexual exploitation, sexual extortion and the livestreaming of child sexual abuse.

The social media platform, bought by eccentric entrepreneur Elon Musk for $US44bn just more than a year ago, refused to pay the fine and lodged a legal claim in November in the Federal Court asking for a judicial review of the eSafety Commissioner’s decision.

The Commissioner has now asked that its new civil penalty proceedings be joined to that case to avoid further delays.

X was first asked to respond to the request to detail how it was meeting the Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to child sexual exploitation and abuse material in February.

The platform failed to respond adequately, and failed to respond to some questions at all, “leaving some sections entirely blank’’, the Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said when issuing the fine in October.

“In other instances, Twitter/X provided a response that was otherwise incomplete and/or inaccurate,” Ms Inman Grant, said.

“Twitter/X did not respond to a number of key questions, including the time it takes the platform to respond to reports of child sexual exploitation; the measures it has in place to detect child sexual exploitation in livestreams; and the tools and technologies it uses to detect child sexual exploitation material.

“The company also failed to adequately answer questions relating to the number of safety and public policy staff still employed at Twitter/X following the October 2022 acquisition and subsequent job cuts.”

Ms Inman Grant said at the time that X’s responses were disappointing.

“Twitter/X has stated publicly that tackling child sexual exploitation is the number one priority for the company, but it can’t just be empty talk, we need to see words backed up with tangible action.’’

On Thursday the Commissioner said it was important that X and other providers were deterred from noncompliance with statutory notices.

X’s former incarnation, Twitter, has long had issues with the quality of discourse on the platform, however since Musk has taken over, hate speech and other inappropriate material has proliferated.

Musk fired more than 80 per cent of X’s staff, and himself faced condemnation recently for endorsing anti-Semitic views on the platform.

Musk is regarded as a free speech absolutist and recently ­reinstated far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the ­social media platform, a year after vowing never to let him return.

Jones, who claimed a 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that killed 20 children and six teachers was a hoax, was banned from the platform then known as Twitter in 2018 for violating its “abusive behaviour policy”.

He was also sued by families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting and ordered to pay more than $US1bn in damages last year.

Musk had promised never to let the Infowars host back on the social media platform. But following a poll he conducted on X, to which two million users responded, he flipped that decision.

“I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?” Musk said on X.

Jones’ followers harassed the bereaved families for years, ­accusing parents of being ­“crisis actors” whose children had never existed.

Advertisers in Australia and globally have been deserting the platform, which has more than halved in value since Musk bought it.

Musk recently told major companies including Disney to “go f*** yourself” when queried about advertisers leaving the platform due to the content it was serving up next to their brands.

X has a policy of not responding to media queries.