B.C. ruling reverses $100K penalty issued to X for not deleting intimate images

Posted November 6, 2026 5:56 pm

2 min read

A B.C. tribunal ruling has reversed the penalty issued to a social media platform for not deleting intimate images.

Last year, the tribunal ruled that X must pay a $100,000 penalty for not deleting an intimate image after a protection order was issued requiring the social media platform to delete the image shared via an account.

But X instead blocked the image from being viewed in Canada, while leaving it available elsewhere.

It then challenged the decision, arguing that the tribunal cannot globally enforce a law created in B.C.

In his decision, vice-chair Eric Regehr wrote that “internet intermediaries can avoid administrative penalties if they can prove they took reasonable steps to address the distribution of unlawful intimate images on their platforms.”

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Online safety advocate Carol Todd, who has been speaking out about the dangers of the internet since the death of her daughter Amanda, said she is disappointed, but not surprised by the ruling.

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“Why does big tech and platforms like X get away with this, and thinking that, you know, our B.C., our legislation is nothing?” she said.

“Oh, it’s just, I get so angry.”

Experts say Canada needs stronger federal legislation to give authorities more power to hold those companies accountable.

“What we see, we’re actually moving to introduce federal legislation because what we currently have is not sufficient,” Heidi Tworek, a professor of history and public policy at the University of British Columbia, said.

“There was a change of one law to ensure that definitions of intimate images at the federal level also include synthetic images, so deepfakes. But there’s also (Bill) C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which is working its way through Parliament, which will create a digital regulator at the federal level.”

Bill C-34 includes a ban on social media for kids under the age of 16.

2:07 How will the Online Harms Act help B.C. kids?

The tribunal did reject X’s attempt to recover more than $100,000 in legal costs from the woman who brought the case forward.