The online safety commission will consider enforcement options after Telegram discontinued its challenge of a $1 million penalty over its failure to respond to a transparency notice.
Telegram’s decision to discontinue its Federal Court challenge of the validity of a reporting notice that sought information about compliance with online safety was welcomed by eSafety.
In February 2025, eSafety handed Telegram an infringement notice for almost $1 million for its failure to respond to the transparency notice deadline by over five months, which delayed the publication of steps it had taken to address terrorist, extremist and child exploitation material.
Telegram had challenged it on the basis that it was not the “provider” of the Telegram Messenger application under the Online Safety Act and was therefore not required to respond to the reporting notice.
Telegram also claimed the reporting notice was not properly “given”.
“eSafety is considering its options to enforce compliance with the reporting notice,” the commission said in a statement.
When the $957,780 penalty was first issued, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said it would send an important message to the industry that timely transparency was not a voluntary requirement in Australia, and Australian law must be complied with.
“If we want accountability from the tech industry, we need much greater transparency,” Grant said.
“These powers give us a look under the hood at just how these platforms are dealing, or not dealing, with a range of serious and egregious online harms which affect Australians.”
It came amid the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) warning that Australia’s terrorist threat level was at “probable”, citing online radicalisation of young people as a driving factor.
Grant said research and observation have shown material can “normalise, desensitise and sometimes radicalise”, particularly the young people who are seeing the material.
“Surfacing how and where some of these platforms might be failing – and also succeeding – in tackling this content is vital to protect the community and raise safety standards across the industry, especially where this most abhorrent of content is concerned,” Grant said.
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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