Elon Musk merging Twitter into X didn’t absolve X from child safety fine.

Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) remains on the hook for an approximately $400,000 fine after failing to respond to an Australia eSafety Commission 2023 inquiry, which largely sought to probe measures X is currently taking to combat an alleged proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on its platform.

To void the fine, X tried to persuade Australian Judge Michael Wheelahan that X had no obligation to comply with an Online Safety Act notice issued to Twitter because Twitter “ceased to exist” a few weeks after receiving the notice—when Musk merged the app into his company X Corp.

  • @Breezy
    link
    English
    328 minutes ago

    So i committed a crime, i didn’t know if i change my name i could get out of it

  • @NABDad
    link
    English
    117 minutes ago

    I’m thinking Musk may be in a “Brewster’s Millions” situation, in which he needs to spend every penny he has and end up with absolutely no assets in order to win an even larger fortune.

    If we’re really, really lucky, someone scammed him to think that he’d win a fortune, and after he’s lost everything he’ll discover there’s no fortune.

  • @WoahWoah
    link
    English
    283 hours ago

    The fine was not written in red ink diagonally across the postage stamp. No countsy.

    -Elon Musk

  • magnetosphere
    link
    fedilink
    443 hours ago

    This reads like a sovcit defense.

    Wheelahan summarized X’s argument as saying that “X Corp was not obliged to prepare any report in Twitter Inc’s place, as X Corp was not the same person as the provider to whom the notice was issued.”

    Anyway, start charging interest. A lot. Backdated to October of last year.

    • @Zahille7
      link
      English
      82 hours ago

      “same person” eugh

    • Cadeillac
      link
      English
      62 hours ago

      I expect no less from this child

  • @affiliate
    link
    English
    82 hours ago

    does this mean the twitter brand is up for grabs? anyone can start up a new website at twitter dot com? musk’s letting go of it completely?

  • @Blue_Morpho
    link
    English
    414 hours ago

    I wish companies and people were held to the standards of their own arguments.

    For example because X claimed they don’t owe anything because they changed their name from Twitter, any business dealing with X would legally be allowed to use the same argument.

    • Obinice
      link
      English
      364 hours ago

      Thing is, that’s exactly how you do it as a capitalist.

      Compartmentalise your businesses and ensure they’re registered so as to never come after your personal assets should they go bust.

      Then, if the business fails and goes bust, shut it down, sack everyone, and a week later reopen in the same place with a slightly different name and rehire most of the same staff under the new company.

      The new company is not in any way legally connected to the old one, and the one one’s debts are to be handled whatever administration firm took all that over, etc.

      I’ve seen it happen first hand here in the UK, good example of why capitalists are scumbags that are above our laws.

  • @pyre
    link
    English
    133 hours ago

    lol he really went for the sovcit strats. fucking idiot.

    • @elliot_crane
      link
      English
      82 hours ago

      Came here to say this. Dude routinely misgenders and deadnames his daughter and claims that she died from “the woke mind virus”, then he turns around and tries to pull this shit.

  • @MegaUltraChicken
    link
    English
    1056 hours ago

    I would 100x the fucking fine just for trying that argument if I was the judge.

    • @disguy_ovahea
      link
      English
      83 hours ago

      I’m not sure about Australia’s laws, but in the US, that could result in recusal of the judge on the grounds of bias.

  • @someguy3
    link
    English
    496 hours ago

    It’s like the game you play with a baby where you put your hands over your face to hide.