\n<\/p>\n
X has lost a legal fight in Australia in which the company tried to avoid a $400,000 fine by claiming that Twitter no longer exists. The creative legal argument, first <\/a> ArsTechnica<\/em>, came amid a more than year-long dispute with Australia\u2019s eSafety Commission.<\/p>\n The commission had asked the company, then known as Twitter, to provide details about its handling of child sexual exploitation on the platform last February. In its response, X failed to answer a number of questions and left \u201csome sections entirely blank,\u201d the commission said in a statement <\/a>. As a result, the eSafety Commission slapped the company with a more than $415,000 fine for non-compliance.<\/p>\n It was an attempt to fight that fine that led to X\u2019s claim that it shouldn\u2019t be responsible since Twitter had \u201cceased to exist.\u201d From the court filing<\/a>:<\/p>\n X Corp submitted that, on and from 15 March 2023, Twitter Inc ceased to be a person, and therefore ceased to be a provider of a social media service. It was submitted that Twitter Inc therefore lacked capacity to comply with the notice, and that X Corp was not obliged to prepare any report in Twitter Inc\u2019s place, as X Corp was not the same person as the provider to whom the notice was issued.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n The argument isn\u2019t exactly new for the Elon Musk-owned entity. CEO Linda Yaccarino has also repeatedly claimed that X is a \u201cbrand new company\u201d in a bid to avoid scrutiny. She repeated the line multiple times earlier this year <\/a> at a Senate hearing on child safety issues.<\/p>\n Australia federal Judge Michael Wheelahan, however, found the claim unconvincing, saying that X\u2019s argument required \u201cleaps in logic that were not supported by adequate explanation.\u201d X didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n