X under pressure in Ireland over porn age checks

Ireland’s media regulator is turning up the heat on Elon Musk’s social media site X for not properly checking the age of users who can access porn.

The country’s new Online Safety Code includes provisions on age assurance to keep minors away from harmful content, including pornographic and violent content. The code applies to video-sharing platforms X, Facebook and TikTok. These age-check provisions came into effect on July 21.

“Based on an initial review of the X platform, we cannot see evidence of measures taken to comply with this age assurance requirement,” a spokesperson for Ireland’s media regulator Coimisiún na Meán told POLITICO in a statement.

The regulator has “further concerns” of non-compliance, “including but not limited to” the “availability of parental controls.”

The regulator asked X to provide information by July 25 and “will take further action where there is evidence of non-compliance with the Code,” the spokesperson said.

The Coimisiún na Meán in June put pressure on X to comply with the code, sending the platform a statutory information request to describe its compliance measures. X has a deadline to respond by Aug. 8, which was extended from July 22. The platform risks being charged with a crime and fined up to €500,000 should it fail to respond by the deadline.

Musk’s platform is also challenging the code before Ireland’s High Court, including certain provisions contained within it and its application to X. A decision on that challenge is expected on Friday, July 25.

Ireland’s new media law is a national implementation of the European Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Companies with their EU headquarters in Ireland have to follow Irish rules.

X did not reply to a request for comment in time for publication.

An X spokesperson said earlier that the company is “fully committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations,” including Ireland’s code, and is “prioritizing its implementation.”

The French government is considering classifying X, Bluesky and Reddit as porn platforms, which would mean they have to follow stricter age verification requirements.