Australia: Issued ruling in eSafety Commissioner's public lawsuit against X for failure to comply with transparency notice on addressing online child exploitation

On 4 October 2024, the Federal Court of Australia delivered a ruling on a public lawsuit concerning X Corp's obligation to comply with a transparency notice under the Online Safety Act 2021. The notice, issued by the eSafety Commissioner, sought information about the steps X Corp. had taken to address the proliferation of child sexual exploitation material on its platform. The court rejected X Corp.'s argument that it should not have to respond because the notice was originally issued to Twitter Inc. prior to its merger with X Corp. in March 2023. The Court therefore dismissed X Corp's case against the eSafety Commissioner. X Corp was therefore obligated to respond and was also ordered to pay the Commissioner's costs.