Australia imposes penalties on X for not effectively addressing child abuse material.

The Australian internet safety watchdog has fined Elon Musk's X (Twitter) a hefty sum of A$610,500 ($386,000; £317,360) for failing to cooperate with an investigation into its anti-child abuse practices. This penalty comes after Musk had previously stated in a post last November that the removal of child exploitation was their top priority. The eSafety Commission criticized the company for its lack of action on the issue, referring to its promises as "empty talk." Insiders informed the BBC that X would be unable to protect users from trolling due to recent mass layoffs. X has experienced a continuous decline in revenue since Musk acquired it for $44 billion last year. Under new Australian laws, regulators have the authority to require internet companies to provide information about their online safety methods. Failure to comply can result in fines or legal action against the company. Google, also a part of Alphabet, received a warning for not complying with requests for information on its handling of child abuse content. However, X's noncompliance was more severe as they failed to respond to crucial questions, leaving sections of their response blank. The company did not answer questions about their response time to reports of child sexual exploitation, measures in place to detect it in livestreams, and the tools used to identify such material. X confirmed to the regulators that they had cut 80% of their global workforce and no longer have public policy staff in Australia since Musk took over. Last month, X faced criticism from Australian researchers for disabling a feature that allowed users to report election misinformation. Concerns were raised as this took place before a significant Australian referendum granting Indigenous people more rights. The BBC has reached out to X for a comment.