Opinion | Australia fines X – aka Twitter – US$386,000 over child sexual abuse content, but does it resolve anything?
- Research shows platforms like Instagram and X are particularly prolific for advertising the sale of self-generated child sex abuse material
- The fine spotlights the issue of child sex abuse material on X and could pressure advertisers to pull their ads or encourage governments to follow suit
The commissioner first issued transparency notices to Google, X (then Twitter), Twitch, TikTok and Discord in February under the Online Safety Act 2021. Under this legislation, the commissioner has powers to require online service providers to report on how they are mitigating unlawful or harmful content.
The commissioner determined Google and X did not sufficiently comply with the notices given to them. Google was warned for providing overly generic responses to specific questions, while X’s non-compliance was found to be more serious.
For several key questions, X’s response was blank, incomplete or inaccurate. For example, X did not adequately disclose:
• The time it takes to respond to reports of child sexual exploitation material;
• the measures in place to detect child sexual exploitation material in live streams;
• the tools and technologies used to detect this material;