An Australian federal court rejected an appeal by X and ruled it is required to respond to a request by the eSafety Commissioner for information about its anti-child-abuse practices on its social media platform.

eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant noted the ruling confirms obligations to comply with the country’s regulations still apply, regardless of a “foreign company’s merger with another foreign company”.

The court also ordered X to pay eSafety’s costs.

X appealed the court’s decision from October in 2024, which found the company was required to comply with a transparency notice issued to Twitter in February 2023. Twitter became X in March 2023.

In early 2023 the body asked some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Twitter, to report on steps they were taking to comply with the Australian government’s basic online safety expectations regarding abuse material on their platforms.

eSafety’s civil penalty proceedings against X Corp, in relation to its alleged non-compliance with the transparency notice, are ongoing.

In 2023, it fined X AUD610,500 ($396,000) for failing to provide the requested information.