Sept 9 (Reuters) - A Canadian civil tribunal has fined

Elon Musk's social media platform X for its refusal to comply

with an order to remove a non-consensual intimate image, a

decision published last week showed.

British Columbia's Civil Resolution Tribunal ruled in an

initial decision in March that the posting of a particular

picture of a woman, referred to pseudonymously as "TR," violated

British Columbia's Intimate Image Protection Act.

The tribunal's vice chair, Eric Regehr, ordered the image to

be taken down and deleted by X, controlled by Tesla

founder Musk, and other platforms.

X did not obey that order, a subsequent tribunal decision

imposing administrative penalties states. Rather than removing

the image, which was being repeatedly posted by an X user, X

chose to geofence it, allowing users outside of Canada to

continue viewing and sharing it.

X's full arguments to the tribunal are not public record.

But according to Regehr's ruling, the company argued the

tribunal lacked the authority to make X "restrict or eliminate

the online availability of intimate images outside (British

Columbia)."

Regehr dismissed that argument, noting X's position would

call into question whether British Columbia's law overstepped

the province's authority under Canada's constitution.

"I have no authority to consider constitutional arguments,"

he wrote. "The question about X's compliance is a very simple

one. I ordered internet intermediaries, which includes X, to

remove the intimate image. X received the order, but it did not

remove the intimate image. Instead, it did something less. X did

not comply with the protection order."

Regehr's order shielded the woman's name and biographical

details from public disclosure. While Civil Resolution Tribunal

decisions are not generally public, he said he chose to publish

his order because it was the first levying a penalty against an

internet intermediary such as X. He wrote the woman "lives in

the knowledge that the vast majority of the world's population

can still see the intimate image on X."

The tribunal fined X the statutory maximum of C$100,000

($72,307) and invited the woman to request additional penalties

of up to C$5,000 a day in the event that X continues to not

comply with the March order. Regehr declined to order X to

compensate the woman for her time spent on the dispute, however,

citing ongoing issues of generative AI-induced errors in the

woman's submissions to the tribunal.

Neither X nor a lawyer whose name matched X's named counsel

in the case responded to a request for comment.

In a statement to Reuters, British Columbia's Ministry of

Attorney General said it was "not aware of any steps taken by X

in response to the ruling in this case or the IIPA in general,"

but that it expected the company both to comply and pay validly

ordered fines.

"We do not anticipate any difficulty in enforcing those laws

if needed," the ministry's statement said.

($1 = 1.3830 Canadian dollars)