Elon Musk’s X and Australia’s eSafety commissioner have locked horns for the second time over demands to take down footage of a Sydney church stabbing.
Australian authorities are looking to tighten their grip over what they called “misinformation” on social media, after video of a teenager’s alleged stabbing attack against an Orthodox Christian bishop during a live-streamed service, emerged on X (formally Twitter) on April 14.
On the following day, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told reporters she had asked X and Meta to remove videos that depicted “gratuitous violent” content within 24 hours.
“While the majority of mainstream social media platforms have engaged with us, I am not satisfied enough is being done to protect Australians from this most extreme and gratuitous violent material circulating online,” Ms. Grant said.
X Opposes ‘Global Takedown’ Order
In a post on April 20, X’s Global Government Affairs team said they received a demand for X to “globally withhold these posts or face a daily fine of $785,000 AUD (about $500,000 USD).”The company argued that this order was “not within the scope of Australian law” and that it did comply with the directive in the country “pending a legal challenge.”
“While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the eSafety commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally. We will robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court.”
“Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open internet and threaten free speech everywhere.”
The Global Government Affairs team said there’s a public conversation happening about the event, on X and across Australia, “as is often the case when events of major public concern occur.”
It described the stabbing incident as “a horrific assault on free society.”
The Live-Streamed Attack on a Christian Bishop
The event in question took place at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the suburb of Wakeley in western Sydney, when Assyrian Christian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was conducting a live-streamed sermon.A 16-year-old boy walked up to the bishop, and stabbed him with a knife multiple times.
The incident, which police later designated a “terrorist act”—due to to the motivations of the assailant—triggered a riot outside the church with hundreds of community members rushing to the location.
The riot descended into violence with participants hurling bricks at police officers, while also vandalising police vehicles.
The teenager was suspected to have recently converted to Islam. He allegedly screamed the Islamic phrase “Allahu Akbar”, meaning “God is the greatest,” and told other churchgoers that the bishop had sworn at his prophet.
Hours after the attack, a man who claimed to have been praying with the boy said on WhatsApp that the teenager had been “poisoned by a monster,” according to The Daily Telegraph.
X Also Engaged with eSafety Over Trans Activist Post
X’s latest legal battle occurs less than a month after the social media company announced it would mount a court challenge against the eSafety commissioner over her request to remove a post that she said was “degrading” to transgender people.On Feb. 28, an X user with the pseudonym “Billboard Chris,” published a post criticising the World Health Organisation’s selection of Australian trans activist Teddy Cook to a new panel drafting global health rules.
Billboard Chris went further in his post saying, “People who belong in psychiatric wards are writing the guidelines for people who belong in psychiatric wards.”
“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 said.
X confirmed that it was “withholding the post in Australia in compliance with the order, but intends to file a legal challenge to the order to protect its user’s right to free speech.”
