A Canadian activist at the centre of a dispute between the Australian government’s online censorship chief and X has filed a legal challenge, declaring that he will not be silenced.
Billboard Chris, a campaigner against gender ideology and child genital mutilation, today announced he had submitted a Notice of Appeal to a demand from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant that X remove an honest and factual post where he called Teddy Cook, a female World Health Organisation policymaker, a woman.
His February X post shared a DailyMail.com article on Ms Cook, a radical activist who advises the WHO on “transgender issues”, is an influential advocate for radical policies such as taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries, and who is into bondage, nudism and drugs.
Elon Musk’s social media platform also intends to challenge Ms Inman Grant’s removal notice, which came with the threat of a $782,500 if the March 22 post was not taken down, alleging Billboard Chris had “intended to cause serious harm” to Ms Cook by calling her a woman.
“I urge [Ms Inman Grant] to save Australian tax dollars, and to revoke the take-down order of my post,” Billboard Chris wrote on X, and shared copies of his appeal, filed in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with the assistance of the Free Speech Union of Australia.
“In the event the eSafety Commissioner continues to exercise a lack of wisdom, I greatly look forward to an Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Resistance is futile. Heads, I win. Tails, you lose. I will not be silenced.
“eSafety boasts that they are ‘the world’s first government agency dedicated to keeping people safe online’. In reality, they are an authoritarian arm of the government run by an unelected, far-left bureaucrat who has called for a recalibration of free speech, and who uses her power to arbitrarily silence truth she doesn’t like.
“This appeal is the first of its kind against the eSafety Commissioner. I am thrilled to be the recipient of Julie Inman Grant’s unfortunate decision to censor me, and I will fight this until I win, or until all options are exhausted. Then I will fight some more. Children cannot consent to puberty blockers!”
Huge news!
I have just submitted a Notice of Appeal, legally challenging the censorship of Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant.
I urge @tweetinjules to save Australian tax dollars, and to revoke the take-down order of my post.
In the event the eSafety… pic.twitter.com/oBPE9OkR3W
— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) April 16, 2024
The appeal notes that Billboard Chris’s activism and stance on the issue of “transgenderism” has been vindicated by the recent WPATH Files and Cass Review which have shows that “gender-affirming care” causes irreversible harm to children.
His lawyers will appeal on three grounds, firstly that Ms Inman Grant misapplied Australia’s Online Safety Act, secondly that the removal notice violated the implied freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution, and lastly that the issuance of the removal notice was an abuse of discretion.
“The claim that Billboard Chris has engaged in creating and disseminating “cyber-abuse material” is a grave allegation, made without any reference or notification to him, and in entirely misconceived,” the appeal states.
The appeal also notes Ms Inman Grant’s personal connection to Ms Cook, and the fact that only five notices have been given in the past two years.
“Given the volume of genuine cyber abuse material which must be regularly being reported to the Commissioner (such as stalking, doxxing and so forth), it is most surprising that this particular post was at the top of the office’s priority list,” the appeal notes.
“This conveys an unfortunate impression as to the true purpose of the removal notice, and its likely political character.”
Ms Inman Grant is also under fire for demanding Meta and X remove videos of the stabbing of a Sydney bishop in church in an alleged terror attack on Monday night, calling it “damaging content”.
“Seems like these requests are designed to keep Australians in the dark and the government in full control of the narrative around the incident. Disgusting,” said independent journalist Rukshan Fernando.
Billboard Chris’s legal challenge comes after he hit back at left-wing media outlet The Guardian for claiming without evidence that he had caused Ms Cook to be “bullied online” by sharing the removal notice.
Billboard Chris told Noticer News: “The inclusion of pronouns in the journalist’s bio reveals what’s really going on.
“This isn’t journalism. It’s activism.”
Along with “he/him” pronouns, the reporter also has rainbow emojis in his X and Instagram bios, and lists his location as “Naarm/Melbourne”, the former being an ahistorical name for the Victorian capital used by the far-left and anti-Australian Indigenous extremists.
The eSafety Commissioner’s Adult Cyber Abuse manager told X in a March 22 letter that Billboard Chris’s post, which is now blocked in Australia but has not been removed by the platform, must be taken down or a fine of up to $782,500 would be issued.
The letter also contained a screenshot of the X post, which the eSafety Commissioner claimed was likely to be “intended to cause serious harm to the Complainant”.
“This is because the Material misgenders the Complainant and reiterates that this point is deliberate, which is likely intended to invalidate and mock the Complainant’s gender identity,” the notice read.
“The Material also contains a statement that implicitly equates transgender identity with a psychiatric condition. This statement is deliberately degrading and suggests that all transgender people – and in this case the complainant in particular – have something that is ‘wrong’ about their psychology owing to their gender identity.”
Here’s the last page of the Australian government’s correspondence. pic.twitter.com/KScgzxZIOF
— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) March 26, 2024
The X post read: “This woman (yes, she’s female) is part of a panel of 20 ‘experts’ hired by the @WHO to draft their policy on ‘trans people.’
“People who belong in psychiatric wards are writing the guidelines for people who belong in psychiatric wards”.
Billboard Chris told Noticer News at the time: “I stand by everything I said.
“A woman who thinks she’s a man — and who promotes queer theory, bestiality, and bondage — has no place writing guidelines for the health of individuals struggling with mental illness.
“The eSafety Commissioner has ignored threats of violence and threats of sexual violence towards women on this platform.
“It seems the way to get Julie Inman Grant’s attention is to claim victimhood through a trans identity, no matter how depraved that individual may be.”
He also explained on X why he would not be taking the tweet down: “I do not hold that woman in contempt for her transgender identity, because I maintain that gender identities do not exist. We are called males and females, and that’s that.”
He said it was a statistical likelihood that Ms Cook has psychiatric conditions, and that it was his opinion that she should not be writing WHO guidelines for others with similar mental health conditions.
