X Says Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban Risks Interfering With Foreign Law
X Says Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban Risks Interfering With Foreign Law
X 公司称澳大利亚的 16 岁以下社交媒体禁令可能干涉外国法律
X has a new argument against sweeping underage social media bans that would limit usage of its platform: They interfere with international law. X 公司针对旨在限制其平台使用的全面未成年人社交媒体禁令提出了一个新的论点：这些禁令干涉了国际法。
The social media platform, which sits within Elon Musk’s SpaceX, issued a submission to the Australian parliament published Tuesday that called for the government to drop efforts to strengthen its underage social media ban. It complained that the proposals to increase pressure on sites to demonstrate efforts to crack down on underage access are unnecessary, ill-suited, unfair, and could violate privacy rights. 该社交媒体平台隶属于埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）的 SpaceX 旗下。周二，该平台向澳大利亚议会提交了一份意见书，呼吁政府放弃加强未成年人社交媒体禁令的努力。X 公司抱怨称，这些旨在加大压力要求网站证明其打击未成年人访问力度的提案是不必要的、不恰当的、不公平的，且可能侵犯隐私权。
X pushed back against the “highly invasive” information gathering powers the proposed amendment would allow, accusing the commissioner of having “seemingly no understanding” of how this would work for the platforms and no safeguards for confidential and commercially sensitive information. Demanding data, documents, and compliance evidence from non-Australians in other countries could cause issues “for the comity of nations,” the firm also warned. X 公司对拟议修正案所允许的“高度侵入性”信息收集权力进行了反击，指责相关专员“似乎完全不了解”这对平台意味着什么，且未能为机密和商业敏感信息提供任何保障。该公司还警告称，要求其他国家的非澳大利亚公民提供数据、文件和合规证据，可能会引发“国家间礼让”方面的问题。
Australia is leading a growing global movement to restrict children’s access to social media, after banning under-16-year-olds from the sites in December. In May, the country ordered X to pay a $463,000 fine for failing to comply with child safety measures. The country’s internet regulator, eSafety, first issued the fine in 2023, claiming X did not respond sufficiently to a request for information on how it was tackling the spread of online child sexual abuse content, submitted one month before Elon Musk took over Twitter, now X. 继去年 12 月禁止 16 岁以下青少年使用社交媒体网站后，澳大利亚正引领着全球限制儿童使用社交媒体的运动。今年 5 月，该国下令 X 公司支付 46.3 万美元的罚款，理由是其未能遵守儿童安全措施。澳大利亚互联网监管机构 eSafety 于 2023 年首次开出这笔罚单，声称 X 公司未能充分回应关于其如何打击在线儿童性虐待内容传播的信息请求，而该请求是在埃隆·马斯克接管 Twitter（现为 X）前一个月提交的。
X has previously criticized the country’s “excessive” penalty regime and complained in the most recent submission that a proposal to increase penalties against individuals is “entirely unjustified and disproportionate.” X 公司此前曾批评该国的“过度”惩罚制度，并在最近的意见书中抱怨称，一项针对个人增加处罚的提案是“完全不合理且不成比例的”。
Musk has been a particularly vocal critic of Australia’s bill to make 16 the minimum age for social media. “Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians,” he wrote on X when the legislation 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 “true fascist totalitarian.” 马斯克一直是对澳大利亚将社交媒体最低使用年龄定为 16 岁的法案持强烈批评态度的人士之一。当该法案于 2024 年底宣布时，他在 X 上写道：“这看起来像是控制所有澳大利亚人访问互联网的后门方式。”当西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯（Pedro Sánchez）在今年 2 月宣布类似措施时，马斯克称他为“暴君”和“真正的法西斯极权主义者”。
While many digital rights campaigners believe blanket age bans on social media are “problematic,” the information-gathering powers are not the issue, says Stefania Di Stefano, a researcher in international law and technologies. 国际法与技术研究员斯特凡尼亚·迪·斯特凡诺（Stefania Di Stefano）表示，虽然许多数字权利活动人士认为社交媒体的全面年龄禁令存在“问题”，但信息收集权力本身并不是核心争议点。
“For me, the complete ban from social media on children and minors is problematic from an international human rights perspective,” says Di Stefano. “It is disproportionate with respect to the right of children to exercise their right to freedom of expression, their right to access information, their right to association, and so on and so forth.” “对我而言，从国际人权的角度来看，全面禁止儿童和未成年人使用社交媒体是有问题的，”迪·斯特凡诺说。“这与儿童行使言论自由权、获取信息权、结社权等权利相比，是不成比例的。”
But Julia Hörnle, a professor of internet law at Queen Mary University of London, is skeptical about X’s submission. “A regulator in Australia ordering X to disclose a document in relation to their business activities in Australia, that’s perfectly fine,” she tells WIRED. “From all the data in the possession of the social media company, they can distinguish between Australian and non-Australian children, and therefore keep regulation to Australia.” 但伦敦玛丽女王大学互联网法教授朱莉娅·霍恩勒（Julia Hörnle）对 X 公司的意见书持怀疑态度。“澳大利亚监管机构要求 X 公司披露与其在澳业务活动相关的文件，这是完全合理的，”她告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志。“社交媒体公司掌握的所有数据足以区分澳大利亚儿童和非澳大利亚儿童，因此完全可以将监管范围限制在澳大利亚境内。”