X Says Australia’s Under-16 Media Ban Threatens Foreign Policy

X is a a new argument against sweeping children social media restrictions which may limit the use of its platform: It violates international law.

The social network, which lives inside Elon Musk’s Images of SpaceXprinted which was presented to the Australian parliament published on Tuesday which called on the government to stop its stimulus efforts Small social media ban. It complained that the proposal to increase the pressure on websites to show efforts to target young people is unnecessary, inappropriate, unfair, and could violate the right to privacy.

X pushed back against the “extremely damaging” data collection powers that the amendment would allow, accusing the Commissioner of “seeming to have no understanding” of how this could be used by the platform and that there were no privacy and commercial protections. Requiring information, documents, and subsequent evidence from non-Australians in other countries could cause problems “for countries of origin,” the company also warned.

Australia is leading a growing movements around the world to prevent children from using social media, after banning children under the age of 16 from accessing the site in December. In May, the state ordered X to pay a $463,000 fine for failing to comply with child protection measures. The country’s internet watchdog, eSafety, issued the fine for the first time in 2023, saying X had not adequately responded to a request for information on how it was dealing with the spread of child abuse online, which was issued a month earlier. Elon Musk took over Twitter, now X.

X has previously criticized the country’s “punishment” and complained in a recent statement that the idea of ​​increasing sanctions on people is “unjust and disproportionate.”

Musk has been vocal in his opposition to Australia’s decision to make 16 the minimum age for social media. “It appears to be a backdoor approach to improving internet access for all Australians,” wrote on X when the law was announced in late 2024. When Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced similar measures in February of this year, Musk called him a “tyrant” and a “true fascist dictator.”

While many digital rights advocates believe that the decades-long ban on social media is “complicated,” the power to collect information is not, said Stefania Di Stefano, an international law and technology researcher.

“For me, the complete ban on social media for children and children is difficult for human rights around the world,” says Di Stefano. “It is against children’s right to exercise their freedom of speech, their right to access information, their right to assemble, etc.”

But Julia Hörnle, a professor of Internet law at Queen Mary University in London, is skeptical about X’s submission. “The Australian regulator orders X to disclose a document related to their business in Australia, that’s fine,” she tells WIRED. “From all the information that a media company has, they can differentiate between Australian children and non-Australian children, thus keeping the law in Australia.”