X misplaced a courtroom battle after attempting to say ‘Twitter ceased to exist’

X has misplaced a authorized battle in Australia through which the corporate tried to keep away from a $400,000 nice by claiming that Twitter now not exists. The inventive authorized argument, first ArsTechnica, got here amid a greater than year-long dispute with Australia’s eSafety Fee.

The fee had requested the corporate, then often called Twitter, to offer particulars about its dealing with of kid sexual exploitation on the platform final February. In its response, X didn’t reply quite a few questions and left “some sections totally clean,” the fee mentioned in an announcement . In consequence, the eSafety Fee slapped the corporate with a greater than $415,000 nice for non-compliance.

It was an try to battle that nice that led to X’s declare that it shouldn’t be accountable since Twitter had “ceased to exist.” From the court filing:

The argument isn’t precisely new for the Elon Musk-owned entity. CEO Linda Yaccarino has additionally repeatedly claimed that X is a “model new firm” in a bid to keep away from scrutiny. She repeated the road a number of occasions earlier this 12 months at a Senate listening to on little one questions of safety.

Australia federal Choose Michael Wheelahan, nonetheless, discovered the declare unconvincing, saying that X’s argument required “leaps in logic that weren’t supported by ample rationalization.” X didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In , eSafety Commissioner Inman Grant cheered the choice. “Had X Corp’s argument been accepted by the Courtroom it may have set the regarding precedent {that a} international firm’s merger with one other international firm would possibly allow it to keep away from regulatory obligations in Australia,” Grant mentioned.