{"id":687838,"date":"2026-05-22T18:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/687838\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T18:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:21:08","slug":"australia-federal-court-orders-x-to-pay-465000-fine-for-failing-to-disclose-online-safety-information-jurist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/687838\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia federal court orders X to pay $465,000 fine for failing to disclose online safety information – JURIST"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federal Court of Australia fined<\/a> X (formerly Twitter) around $465,000 USD in a decision on Thursday. The fine stems from the company\u2019s failure to disclose information to Australia\u2019s online safety watchdog regarding the steps it had taken to prevent child exploitation on the site. X has also been ordered to pay the $71,000 court fees of Australia\u2019s eSafety Commissioner.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Online Safety Act requires social media companies to provide greater transparency as to the steps being taken to adhere to Australia\u2019s Basic Online Safety Expectations<\/a>. After a three-year legal battle, it was decided that X failed to disclose information by the required date and must pay the fine. X argued that it was under no obligation to disclose this information to the Digital Safety Commissioner. However, the court rejected this argument.<\/p>\n

Australia is currently leading the way in the global pushback against social media tech giants. In December 2025, the country enacted its famous social media ban<\/a> for anyone under the age of 16, with more countries following suit, such as Greece<\/a>, T\u00fcrkiye<\/a>, Malaysia<\/a>, and Indonesia<\/a>, as well as calls from within the EU<\/a>. These efforts have sparked criticism over effectiveness<\/a> and noncompliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This case in particular follows along a greater pattern of courts using civil<\/a> proceedings to regulate the power of tech companies in lieu of domestic legislation, especially as it pertains to social media\u2019s disproportionate harm against children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Julie Inman Grant, Australia\u2019s eSafety Commissioner, said:<\/p>\n

In early 2023, we asked some of the world\u2019s biggest technology companies, including Twitter, to report on steps they were taking to comply with the Australian Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to the proliferation of child sexual exploitation and abuse materials on their platforms [\u2026] This is not only a key part of our work as Australia\u2019s online safety regulator, it also provides the Australian public with important information about how these companies are tackling the worst-of-the-worst content on their platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Court of Australia fined X (formerly Twitter) around $465,000 USD in a decision on Thursday. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-687838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}