26-4-2024 (SYDNEY) Elon Musk’s social media platform X has defended its decision to publish posts depicting a bishop in Australia being stabbed during a sermon, rejecting a regulator’s order to remove the content on grounds that it is offensive and violent.
The standoff between the platform, formerly known as Twitter, and Australian authorities escalated overnight when X’s “global government affairs” account stated that the video taken by an “innocent bystander” should not have been banned under Australian law, which “permits content that can be reasonably considered as part of public discussion or debate.”
“The content within the posts does not encourage or provoke violence,” the X account asserted, directly challenging the Australian regulator’s stance.
The statement from the company, which Elon Musk acquired in 2022, clashes with claims made by Australian lawmakers that police feared the footage could be used to encourage individuals to join terrorist groups.
The e-Safety Commissioner, a regulatory body tasked with safeguarding online safety, had previously ordered X to remove posts containing the graphic video globally to prevent Australians from viewing them. However, X has now openly challenged the order, citing concerns over “exorbitant jurisdiction.” A court this week temporarily upheld the takedown order until a hearing scheduled for May 10, setting the stage for a legal showdown.
The dispute has sparked increasingly heated public exchanges between Musk, who has long championed himself as a “free speech absolutist,” and Australian officials, including the prime minister and a senator whom Musk suggested should be jailed.
In a move that has further inflamed tensions, Musk shared a series of posts overnight by another user who described the takedown order as part of a World Economic Forum “plot to impose eSafety rules on the world.” Musk’s endorsement of the post, with the caption “Accurate thread,” to his 181 million followers, has ignited a firestorm of controversy and criticism.
The e-Safety Commissioner was not immediately available for comment on the escalating conflict.
The dispute stems from an April 15 attack on an Assyrian bishop in Sydney, for which a 16-year-old boy has been charged with terrorist offences, according to authorities. In a crackdown related to the incident this week, police charged five associates of the youth, also teenagers, with terrorism offences, including possessing extremist material.
