B.C.’s outgoing attorney general says governments must pursue legal changes after the Civil Resolution Tribunal reversed a $100,000 penalty against X involving an intimate-image complaint.
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B.C.’s outgoing attorney general, Niki Sharma, said the handling of an intimate image by X is “appalling,” after the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal reversed a penalty against the social media platform.
Sharma made the comments after the tribunal’s latest decision, released Monday, reversed a $100,000 fine that had previously been ordered against X for not deleting an intimate image shared without the complainant’s consent.
The tribunal said it could not penalize X further for not deleting the image, finding that “geoblocking” the content from being viewed in Canada reasonably addressed the unlawful distribution.
Sharma said she found it troubling that X refused to take down the image that was circulating without consent, and argued that governments should push for legal changes to improve platform accountability.
She said the “correct legal response” to the ruling would be to seek a legal opinion on strengthening the law or pursue legal recourse, adding that governments may have to step in if platforms “fight out everything legally before they take actual steps for safety.”
The case involved a March 2025 protection order requiring X to delete the image. The tribunal had previously ruled in September 2025 that X owed the $100,000 penalty for failing to comply, but in the new decision the tribunal vice-chair, Eric Regehr, reversed the fine.
Regehr said the tribunal’s decision reflected a defence in the Intimate Images Protection Act allowing an internet company to avoid liability if it has taken “reasonable steps” to address the unlawful distribution.
In the decision, the tribunal noted that X argued geoblocking was reasonable because enforcing a B.C. law globally could conflict with legal regimes elsewhere, and that X cited the concept of international “comity.”
The tribunal also rejected X’s request that the complainant be ordered to pay legal fees in excess of US$100,000.
Under the published decision, the complainant’s name is under a publication ban. Sharma said the protections at the centre of the case were brought in by her NDP government in 2024, after the 2012 suicide of teenager Amanda Todd, who faced cyberbullying and online sexual exploitation.
Sharma said the sharing of intimate images without consent is “a betrayal that can have devastating impacts,” and that victims often face limited, complex and expensive legal options.
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