Australia’s internet censorship boss has abandoned her final attempt to force social media platform X to prevent Australians from seeing videos of an alleged Muslim terror attack on a Sydney bishop.
Controversial eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in April ordered X to delete videos of the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney, and filed a federal court order after the platform only restricted them for Australian users, sparking a war of words with X owner Elon Musk.
Ms Inman Grant abandoned that case in June after losing a bid to keep an injunction on X over the tweets the previous month, prompting the platform to declare “freedom of speech had prevailed”, but the videos remained invisible to Australians.
X Corp then filed a legal challenge in the the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) challenging the geo-block on Australian users, and the tribunal on Friday made orders with the agreement of both parties that no removal notice be made and that non-publication orders on X posts of the video be vacated.
Parishioners confirm that Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was just stabbed multiple times in Sydney’s west during mass. Three others were also wounded in the attack that happened just now. https://t.co/T6TcbM2qEy pic.twitter.com/juPua7OIU9
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 15, 2024
Mr Musk’s social media platform said it was “regrettable” the eSafety Commissioner had spent “significant taxpayer resources” trying to restrict free speech.
“X welcomes the decision of the Australian eSafety Commissioner to concede that it should not have ordered X to block the video footage of the tragic attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel,” X Corp said on Saturday.
“The Bishop himself thought the public should be allowed to see the footage. However, the eSafety Commissioner ordered X to block Australians from seeing the footage on X – even though it was available on some other platforms.
“X objected but complied within Australia borders, pending a legal challenge by X. Unsatisfied, the eSafety Commissioner demanded that social media platforms censor the footage worldwide. While other social media companies did so, X fought in the Australian federal court. The court ruled in favour of X and rejected the eSafety Commissioner’s global censorship demand.
“Meanwhile, X filed a legal challenge arguing that the video footage should not be blocked even in Australia. Six months later, the eSafety Commissioner has conceded that X was correct all along and Australians have a right to see the footage.”
The officer of the eSafety Commissioner said it had decided it was more appropriate to wait for a pending review of Australia’s online safety framework rather than test the existing Online Safety Act and how it interacts with the National Classification Scheme.
“The brief but violent footage shows what NSW police deemed a terrorist attack. There is always a copycat risk with this kind of graphic material, not to mention the damaging impact it may have on children,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“So much time has now passed that there is no conceivable newsworthiness factor which could credibly outweigh the serious arguments for keeping the material beyond the ready reach of ill or malevolent social media users who could further weaponise it.”
The eSafety Commissioner is also facing appeals in the AAT from Canadian anti-child-mutilation activist Billboard Chris and Australian woman Celine Baumgarten over X post takedown notices.
Header image: Julie Inman Grant, left (eSafety Office), and Elon Musk, right
