Australia announced on Wednesday that it had dropped its legal battle with Elon Musk’s X to remove graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney from the social media platform.
The dispute was widely regarded as a test of the Australian government’s ability to impose its online safety standards on the social media giants.
Julie Inman-Grant, commissioner of Australia’s online safety regulator, said in a statement that after “multiple considerations,” she decided that ending the proceedings would “likely 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 causing additional harm to the Australian community. “I stand by my investigators and the decisions eSafety made,” Inman-Grant said, referring to Australia’s independent regulator of online safety.
X’s Global Government Affairs team welcomed the news, writing in a post that the company was “heartened to see that freedom of speech has prevailed.”
“Freedom of speech is worth fighting for,” Musk wrote on X soon after the announcement.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed during a livestreamed sermon in Sydney in mid-April, which went viral online and received hundreds of thousands of views. He survived the incident.
Following the attack, which was declared a terror incident by police, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner was granted a temporary legal injunction ordering X to remove posts containing the footage.
Musk argued that the earlier court order violated free speech.
Last month, the Musk-owned social media platform was granted a reprieve in Australia when a court refused to extend a temporary order that prevented videos of a Sydney church stabbing from being broadcast globally.
War of words.
The legal dispute sparked a heated exchange between senior Australian officials and Musk.
In an interview in late April, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described Musk as a “arrogant billionaire” who believes he is above Australian law.
Musk responded to Albanese on X, saying, “I don’t believe I am above the law. Does the Prime Minister believe he should have authority over all of Earth?”
He continued, “This platform adheres to the laws of countries in those countries, but it would be improper to extend one country’s rulings to other countries.”
Musk also referred to eSafety Commissioner Inman-Grant as a “censorship commissar” for seeking a global ban on the graphic footage.
Inman-Grant told ABC News that Musk’s attack on her sparked an online backlash from his millions of followers, as well as death threats and the online disclosure of her children’s personal information.
— CNBC’s Sumathi Bala contributed to this story.
