Australia has halted its legal efforts to remove graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney from Elon Musk’s social media platform, X. Police declared the April attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel a terror incident after it was live streamed, sparking riots outside Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, an independent regulator, warned X and other social media companies of hefty fines if they didn’t remove the stabbing videos, fearing they could incite more violence. The case was viewed as a crucial test of Australia’s ability to enforce its online safety regulations on social media giants.
The Federal Court temporarily ordered X to hide the videos, but X argued the order was invalid and refused to comply. X, formerly known as Twitter, eventually restricted access to the video in Australia, but users could bypass this using a VPN. Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant, a former Twitter employee, requested the global removal of the video, leading Elon Musk to label her a “censorship commissar.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded by calling Musk an “arrogant billionaire.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Ms. Inman-Grant mentioned that due to, “multiple considerations”, dropping the case was “likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children”. “Our sole goal and focus in issuing our removal notice was to prevent this extremely violent footage from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community,” she said. She repeated that her support for the eSafety Commission’s decisions, and Minister for Communication Michelle Rowland echoed this sentiment in parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement on X, the Global Government Affairs team expressed they were “heartened to see that freedom of speech has prevailed.” Previously, X argued that the commission’s orders were “unlawful and dangerous.”
“Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open internet and threaten free speech everywhere,” the statement had said.
“This was a tragic event and we do not allow people to praise it or call for further violence,” it added.
On Wednesday, Ms. Inman-Grant told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Mr. Musk’s comments led to a flood of harassment from his millions of followers, including death threats and the online exposure of her children’s personal information.
