eSafety Commissioner Defends Use of Informal Notices After Tribunal Finds Practice Unlawful

The office says the approach helps address online harm, after a case that cost more than $300,000 in legal fees.

An image of the X (formerly Twitter) phone app in front of a laptop featuring the front page to Australia's eSafety commissioner website, taken in Perth, Western Australia on Jan. 22, 2024. Wade Zhong/The Epoch Times

The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman-Grant, has defended the use of informal channels to flag online content, despite a tribunal finding the practice unlawful in a case that has cost the regulator more than $300,000 in legal fees.

The case centres on a 2024 post on the social media platoform X by Sydney mother Celine Baumgarten, who criticised a Victorian primary school’s “queer club” for students in Years 3 to 6 and identified the teacher involved.