Elon Musk has announced that his social media platform, X, will challenge an Australian court order requiring it to remove footage of a stabbing incident at a Sydney church.
On Monday evening, Australia’s internet regulator obtained a court order compelling X to remove recordings allegedly depicting a Sydney bishop being stabbed in the head during a live-streamed sermon.
X had previously resisted demands from Australia to take down the videos, and Musk had indicated that the company would appeal the order on the grounds of free speech.
‘Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet,’ the tech billionaire posted on X.
‘We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA,’ he added.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticized Musk, calling him an ‘arrogant billionaire’ who was insensitive to the distress caused by the videos.
‘We’ll do what’s necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency,’ Albanese told public broadcaster ABC.
‘The idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out-of-touch Mr. Musk is.’
Australia’s eSafety Commission was granted a late-night injunction requiring X to remove the church stabbing footage for two days, pending further arguments.
X had blocked the videos in Australia, but they remained accessible to users in other parts of the world.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was reportedly attacked with a knife in the head and chest by a 16-year-old suspect last week, triggering a riot by members of the Assyrian Christian church in western Sydney.
Australian authorities have attributed the escalation of tensions in the community to the widespread dissemination of graphic footage of the attack on social media platforms.
Under its groundbreaking ‘Online Safety Act’ implemented in 2021, Australia has spearheaded efforts to hold tech giants accountable for user-generated content.
Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner and a former Twitter executive, has engaged in a series of legal battles with X, seeking to enforce the platform’s responsibility for distributing violent and disturbing content.
Following Musk’s takeover, she has raised concerns about the rise in ‘toxicity and hate’ on the platform.
X has recently been fined Aus$610,500 (US$388,000) by the watchdog for failing to demonstrate its methods for combating child sexual abuse content.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has launched its own legal action in an attempt to overturn the fine.
