Australian Court Fines Elon Musk's X $650,000 for Non-Compliance with Child Safety Rules

Sydney. A court in Australia has ordered American billionaire businessman Elon Musk's micro-blogging website X to pay a fine. X has been ordered to pay a fine of 650,000 Australian dollars for not complying with online rules related to child safety. The court has asked X to pay the fine within 45 days.

This case started in 2023. Australia's internet regulator eSafety Commissioner had sought information on what steps X had taken to control child sexual abuse material on social media. However, at that time, the company claimed that it was not necessary to comply with the request as the company was being transformed from Twitter to X.

The court ordered the company to pay the fine on Thursday after X admitted its mistake. The court also ordered the company to pay an additional 100,000 Australian dollars for the regulator's legal costs. Judge Michael Wheelahan said that a high fine would be effective for a large company. He emphasized that the fine should not appear merely as a normal business operating expense.

There have been disputes between X and the Australian regulator on various issues before. Especially regarding the policy to ban social media use for children under 16 and the refusal to remove the video of the attack at a Sydney church, there has been tension between both parties. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told the BBC in 2024 that after Musk called himself a censorship commissar, she received death threats and her children's personal information was made public. In a statement released on Thursday, Grant said that transparency is extremely necessary to hold technology companies accountable. extremely necessary.