Australian political leaders are locked in a war of words with American billionaire Elon Musk after eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant ordered the platform takedown footage of a Sydney terror incident that occurred on April 15.
X said it had geo-blocked the content in Australia, but refuses to comply with a global takedown order, saying such a move would violate freedom of speech and was beyond the jurisdiction of local authorities. The social media platform says it has launched legal action against the order.
However, on April 22, the eSafety commissioner won a two-day injunction in the Federal Court ordering X to remove the posts for all users globally. The Big Tech company has two days to challenge the order.
Read the latest developments.
Orthodox Christian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel has issued a second public message since the stabbing attack, saying he doesn’t want people to take advantage of the incident to serve their political purposes.
He also said that the videos of the stabbing should remain available online, arguing that the freedom of speech and freedom of religion is a “God-given right.”
“I do not wish for what has happened to me to be used as a way … to be a threat to the very human freedom and freedom of religion,” he said in a video posted on the Christ The Good Shepherd Church YouTube channel on April 24.
American author Michael Shellenberger has weighed in on the dispute between X and Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, warning that the latter was attempting to “pursue global internet censorship.”
Mr. Shellenberger described American-born Julie Inman Grant as the “eSafety czar in Australia” and a “key architect” behind the multi-governmental Global Online Safety Regulators Network to “censor the speech that politicians and government bureaucrats fear.”
The global online safety network consists of seven members including Australia, France, the UK, Ireland, Korea, South Africa and Fiji. Ms. Grant previously said at a Senate Estimates hearing that the network aimed to “work together to achieve better safety outcomes for all of our citizens.”
The Assyrian Christian bishop who was attacked during a live-streamed sermon has said he does not want footage of the incident removed from the internet.
The video of the multiple stabbing attack, is at the heart of an ongoing war of words and a legal battle between Australian authorities and X owner Elon Musk.
On April 22, lawyers for the eSafety Commission applied to the Federal Court for an injunction to compel the social media platform to block all videos of the incident across IPs globally—a request, X says, extends far beyond the jurisdiction of local authorities.
The Federal Court of Australia has granted the eSafety commissioner a 16-day extension of its injunction against X Corp.
The order would force X to hide the footage of the Sydney church stabbing from all users around the world.
The matter will come back to court on May 10, when X lawyers say the social media giant will have more detailed legal arguments prepared to fight the global takedown order.
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Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie has again taken aim at Elon Musk, saying he should do the right thing and comply with the eSafety commissioner's takedown request.
It comes after she emphatically quit X, with a message that Mr. Musk should be "jailed." Mr. Musk hit back, calling the senator "enemy of the people of Australia."
Australia's eSafety Commissioner has ordered X Corp to take down 65 tweets containing video of the Sydney church stabbing attack on April 15.
Australian children could be barred from some websites, as a furore between Australian politicians and billionaire Elon Musk reignites calls for age verification technology.
Whether graphic content should remain on social media has become the subject of heated debate as social media site X, formerly Twitter, fights an edict from the eSafety Commissioner to remove content of a stabbing at a Sydney church.
This comes as the social media giant’s owner Elon Musk and Australia’s politicians engage in a war of words, calling independent senator Jacqui Lambie an “enemy of the people” after she called him a “social media knob,” and trading jabs with the prime minister who labelled him an “arrogant billionaire.”
Everyday Australians will be the main target for the crackdown on misinformation while the government and mainstream will be exempted.
According to the exposure draft of the Misinformation Bill, the content excluded for misinformation purposes includes content “authorised by the Commonwealth, a state, territory or local government” and “professional news content.”
Content produced by an educational institution "accredited by a foreign government or a body recognised by a foreign government" will also be excluded from the list of misinformation.
The government’s misinformation bill would result in “heinous, state-sanctioned surveillance and censorship,” said a Victorian MP.
Russell Broadbent, the member for Monash, said he had “great concern” about the government’s proposed Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) bill 2023.
The government is considering imposing harsher penalties on social media companies after footage of a Sydney church stabbing and the Bondi attack emerged on social media.
Australia’s top domestic spy chief and police commissioner will call on Big Tech to slow down the roll-out of more advanced encryption, encouraging tech firms to help counter online extremism.
In an upcoming address at the National Press Club in Canberra, Mike Burgess, the director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO, and the equivalent of the FBI) will warn that comprehensive end-to-end encryption on messaging apps hampers criminal investigations.
Meanwhile, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw will accuse social media platforms of “refusing to snuff out the social combustion.”
Australian Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neil has called Elon Musk a "megalomaniac" for his refusal to globally take down content showing a terrorist stabbing of a bishop.
Speaking to Seven's Sunrise, she said social media was causing mental health issues and spreading "terrible attitudes."
"They are creating civil division, social unrest, just about every problem that we have as a country is either being exacerbated or caused by social media and we’re not seeing a skerrick of responsibility by these companies," she said.
X became the top grossing news app in Australia overnight, rising two places.
In response, Elon Musk said Australian people want the truth.
"X is the only one standing up for their rights."
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has continued his criticism of Australian authorities and Senator Jacqui Lambie, who on April 23, called for Mr. Musk to be "jailed."
"This woman has utter contempt for the Australian people," Mr. Musk wrote in response to a clip of the senator being interviewed.
Under another post, Mr. Musk wrote that the senator was the "enemy of the people of Australia."
A former federal agent has expressed concerns about the implications of a global ban on content.
“If the Australian Government gets to decide what content is allowed on the internet, why not the Chinese Government? The Saudi Government? The Russian Government?” Carrick Ryan, a former counter terrorism agent said in a post on X on April 23.
In another post, he asked, “Should Israel be allowed to censor scenes of dead babies from Twitter?”
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie has deleted her X account and called for the imprisonment of Elon Musk after the billionaire refused to comply with the Australian government’s order to remove graphic content from the social media platform.
“Hate speech and extremist or violent video is not free speech,” she said in a post on Facebook on April 23.
“X (formerly Twitter) has been going down the sewer for a while now so today I deleted my X account.”
The Free Speech Union of Australia has opposed the government’s push to impose harsher sanctions on what it deemed as misinformation online, saying “no one has a monopoly on truth.”
The Australian authorities are looking to tighten its misinformation law after videos of a Sydney church stabbing and the Bondi Junction attack emerged on X in early April.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has maintained the battle with X was not “about freedom of expression” but rather “the dangerous implications that can occur” when misinformation is “weaponised” to cause division.
Simon Birmingham has argued that Australian authorities support free speech, but only to a certain extent.
The South Australian Liberal Senator has joined the chorus of calls for X to remove videos of the Sydney church stabbing, saying Elon Musk was "dead wrong" in his argument that the global content removal order was an attack on free speech.
"We all support legitimate free speech. But ultimately, these freedoms do have limits when it comes to content and information that can be harmful," Mr. Birmingham told Sky News on April 23.
The CEO of one of Australia's largest self-storage companies, Kennards Self Storage, has weighed in on the debate between Australian authorities and X.
He warned the government’s bid to fight "misinformation" could become a tool to “control citizens.”
In a post on X on April 22, businessman Sam Kennard argued, “Albo’s Ministry of Truth will be used to control citizens and companies and entrench power in the government.”
- Image of Sam Kennard of Kennards Storage (Courtesy of Sam Kennard)
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of using the “terrible” church stabbing incident in Western Sydney to increase government control over online content.
Mr. Canavan also criticised Mr. Albanese for being selective in his calling for the removal of the stabbing footage, saying “there’s much more graphic videos available on social media and mainstream media websites which are not taken down.”
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Tuesday, April 23, the Nationals Senator asked, “Who gets to decide what division is good and what division is bad?”
U.S. billionaire Elon Musk has responded to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after he criticised X (formally Twitter) for refusing to comply with an order from the country's online regulator to remove content.
The battle between the X owner and the Australian government has continued after the Federal Court of Australia issued a two-day injunction forcing the Big Tech company to block all users around the world from viewing footage of an alleged terror attack in a Sydney church.
On April 23, Mr. Musk posted a cartoon showing a person standing at a three-way junction on his account.
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