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A BC Tribunal has ordered the social media company X.com to pay $100,000 fine after it refused to remove an intimate image outside of Canada.

According to a Sept. 4 BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, the social media site formerly known as Twitter argued it had taken the image down in Canada, but that the Tribunal's authority to have the image removed stopped at BC's border.

However, the Tribunal disagreed and handed X.com a $100,000 penalty for failing to adhere to the order to remove the image.

"X’s decision not to comply with it can only be seen as intentional," the Tribunal ruled. "X’s non-compliance was repeated several times."

This is the first time the Tribunal has issued a penalty against an social media company.

In 2024, BC introduced new laws about sharing intimate images online and allowed victims to apply to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal for protection orders to have the images removed, and as a straightforward way of suing the perpetrator.

The case involved an individual referred to as TR, who was granted a protection order by the Tribunal in March to remove an intimate image of themself which was being shared on X.com.

The Tribunal ordered internet companies to remove the intimate image, delete it, and de-index the image from any search engine.

However, X.com only geofenced the post, meaning it couldn't be seen in Canada, but it could elsewhere.

In the decision, X.com argued the BC Tribunal didn't have the legal authority to order it to remove the image outside of BC or to issue a fine for not doing so.

However, the Tribunal dismissed its argument.

"I acknowledge that X did not ignore the order. It acted promptly to geofence the intimate image. This act probably reduced the number of people who have seen the intimate image by some unknowable number," the Tribunal said. "Part of the ongoing harm of intimate images being on the internet is the simple knowledge that people might see it. With that in mind, geofencing is really not a solution at all."

The Tribunal said HR lives in the knowledge that the vast majority of the world’s population can still see the intimate image on X.com and in Canada, using a VPN could also easily bypass the geofence and allow people to see the image.

Noting that X.com was a huge company, the Tribunal handed out the highest fine it could have, making the $100,000 payable to the BC government.

TR had wanted compensation, but the Tribunal ruled they'd used artificial intelligence in their submission, which contained many inaccuracies.

"The first case cited in her reply submissions is real. The submissions then reproduce a block quote from paragraph 150 of that case. However, the case is only 124 paragraphs long and the quote does not exist. Her submissions continue to confidently cite the case for legal propositions it does not discuss," the Tribunal said. "Whether knowingly or negligently, TR provided false and misleading submissions." 

X.com was ordered to pay the fine immediately.

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