SYDNEY, July 29 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's X accused Australia

of trying to give its internet regulator unfair

information-gathering powers and undermining U.S. law with plans

for tougher enforcement of a teen social media ban.

Australia's world-first law barring accounts for under-16s

took effect last December, drawing criticism from social media

companies, mostly based in the United States.

But the contention by X, whose parent company is Musk's

just-listed SpaceX, amounts to one of the world's most

powerful people injecting a geopolitical element into the

debate.

The plans did not give "due regard to procedural fairness,

privacy, the broader impacts on online services, and Australia's

digital economy", X told an Australian senate committee.

In its submission published on Tuesday, X took aim at plans

to give the eSafety Commissioner wider rights of document

discovery and double a maximum fine to A$99 million ($69

million).

The changes would "compel any person outside Australia ...

to provide information and documents merely because they are

'affiliated' with a company," X said, a move it described as

being "in clear conflict" with international legal principles.

The amendment "raises potential for a severe impact on

international comity", it added, using a phrase denoting respect

for a foreign country's legal system.

A U.S. congressional committee has already asked the eSafety

Commissioner to testify, accusing her of imperiling American

free speech.

The billionaire Musk himself called the Australian social

media ban a "backdoor way to control access to the internet by

all Australians" in an earlier post on X.

Data published by eSafety and studies since the ban have

shown most Australian teenagers under 16 still have social media

accounts.

eSafety has said it is preparing a potential enforcement

lawsuit against five platforms but is slowed by its limited

powers.

The regulator told the panel its currently-limited power to

compel documents was at odds with other regulators, making it

dependent on "representations from providers about their own

compliance".

eSafety also lacked power to compel documents from

third-party age assurance providers hired by the platforms,

establishing "significant" barriers to the progress of

investigations, it added.

DIGI, an industry group representing several platforms, told

the senate inquiry eSafety already had extensive enforcement

powers that had not been fully tested, and urged greater clarity

on whom it could demand documents from.

Google's YouTube and TikTok said in separate

submissions there was no known failsafe method to weed out and

block underage users.

Parliament has yet to pass the bill for greater enforcement

powers. The senate committee will deliver its findings on August

25, after holding hearings.

($1=1.4397 Australian dollars)