Fine comes as a blow to X, facing declining revenue and criticism for its content moderation policies
X was fined $386,000 for not cooperating in child abuse investigation in Australia
The Australian e-Safety Commission has fined Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, A$610,500 (about $386,000) for refusing to participate in an inquiry into its procedures for avoiding child abuse.
The platform, which has been struggling with dwindling income and receiving criticism for its content moderation procedures, would suffer a great deal from this financial penalty.
The e-Safety Commission fined X, formerly known as Twitter before to Musk’s rebranding, for refusing to provide information on its policies surrounding reports of child abuse material and the methods it uses to identify such stuff. Because of the platform’s lack of cooperation throughout the investigation, questions have been raised regarding its dedication to combating unlawful content.
Although the penalties seem insignificant in comparison to the $44 billion Musk spent on the platform in October 2022, it nonetheless deals X significant reputational damage. Due to the platform’s considerably reduced content filtering and the restoration of countless previously banned accounts, advertisers have begun decreasing their expenditures there.
Recently, the European Union opened an inquiry into X for potential transgressions of its tech laws, specifically with regard to misinformation connected to the Hamas attack on Israel.
The Australian e-Safety Commission has the power to compel internet service providers to provide details of their policies on online safety. Fines may be imposed for disobeying such demands. If X decides not to pay the fine, the regulator may take the case to court.
The regulator found contradictions in X’s statements, despite Musk’s declaration that “removing child exploitation is priority #1” after taking the company private. When questioned about its efforts to stop child grooming, the platform said that it was “not a service used by large numbers of young people”. X said that the anti-grooming technology currently in use was insufficiently accurate or capable of being used on the platform.
Google, owned by Alphabet, received a warning from the e-Safety Commission for failing to respond to its request for information regarding how child abuse content is handled. The regulator deemed some Google responses to be “generic.” Google voiced dissatisfaction with the warning and reaffirmed its dedication to working with others to improve online safety.
The regulator viewed X’s failure to comply with its demands as more significant because it did not provide information on the company’s reaction times to reports of child abuse, efforts to spot abuse in live streaming, or staffing levels for content moderation, safety, and public policy.
X also noted that it did not deploy technologies to detect child abuse material in private chats due to the technology being in a developing stage. The platform confirmed that it had shrunk its worldwide workforce by 80% and had no public policy employees in Australia following Musk’s takeover.
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