© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of social media platform
By Byron Kaye
SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian regulator fined Elon Musk’s social media platform A$610,500 ($386,000) for failing to cooperate with an investigation into child abuse practices, a blow to a company that has struggled to retain employees. advertisers amid complaints that it is soft on moderating content.
The Electronic Safety Commission fined X, the platform Musk switched from Twitter, saying it did not respond to questions including how long it took to respond to reports of child abuse material on the platform and the methods it used to detect it.
Although small compared to the $44 billion Musk paid for the website in October 2022, the fine is a blow to the reputation of a company that has seen a continued decline in revenue as advertisers cut back on advertising. spending on a platform that stopped moderation of most content and reinstated thousands of banned content. accounts.
More recently, the EU said it was investigating X for a possible violation of its new technology rules after the platform was accused of failing to monitor disinformation in relation to the Hamas attack on Israel.
“If you have answers to the questions, if you are truly putting people, processes and technology in place to address illegal content at scale and globally, and if it is your stated priority, it’s pretty easy to say,” Commissioner Julie Inman said. Grant said in an interview.
“The only reason I see for not answering important questions about illegal content and conduct that occurs on platforms would be if you don’t have answers,” added Inman Grant, who was director of public policy at X until 2016.
X closed its Australian office after Musk’s purchase, so there was no local representative to respond to Reuters. A request for comment sent to the San Francisco-based company’s media email address was not immediately returned.
Under Australian laws that came into force in 2021, the regulator can force internet companies to provide information about their online safety practices or face a fine. If X refuses to pay the fine, the regulator can take the company to court, Grant said.
After taking the company private, Musk said in a post that “eliminating child exploitation is priority number one.” But the Australian regulator said that when he asked X how it prevented child manipulation on the platform, X responded that it was “not a service used by a large number of young people.”
X told the regulator that the available anti-grooming technology “did not have sufficient capability or precision to be implemented on Twitter.”
Inman Grant said the commission also issued a warning to Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:) Google for failing to comply with its request for information about its handling of child abuse content, calling the search engine giant’s responses to some questions “generic.” “. Google said it had cooperated with the regulator and was disappointed by the warning.
“We remain committed to these efforts and working constructively and in good faith with the eSafety Commissioner, government and industry on the shared goal of keeping Australians safer online,” the director of government affairs and policy said. Google Publications for Australia, Lucinda Longcroft.
The breach by content, security and public policies.
The company confirmed to the regulator that it had cut 80% of its global workforce and has no public policy staff in Australia, compared to the two it had before Musk’s acquisition.
X told the regulator that its proactive detection of child abuse material in public posts decreased after Musk took the company private.
The company told the regulator it did not use tools to detect the material in private messages because “the technology is still developing,” the regulator said. ($1 = 1.5833 Australian dollars)
