The eSafety Commissioner has dropped its lawsuit against X over a violent church stabbing video that was posted in April this year.
Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner said this move will help achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of Aussie kids.
“After weighing multiple considerations, including litigation across multiple cases, I have considered this option likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children,” she said.
“I have decided to discontinue the proceedings in the Federal Court against X Corp concerning the matter of extreme violent material depicting the real-life graphic stabbing of a religious leader at Wakeley in Sydney on 15 April 2024.
“We now welcome the opportunity for a thorough and independent merits review of my decision to issue a removal notice to X Corp by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.”
Inman Grant said the commission’s goal and focus in this removal notice to X was to “prevent this extremely violent footage from going viral” potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community.
“I stand by my investigators and the decisions eSafety made,” she added.
The eSafety Commissioner has been in a legal two-and-fro with X over a video of a church stabbing in Sydney showing Wakeley bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being attacked.
A week later, the eSafety Commissioner began legal proceedings against FKA Twitter to remove the violent video.
X CEO Elon Musk has been very vocal about the lawsuit calling it “unlawful”. Responding to the lawsuit, X’s Global Government Affairs posted on the platform saying, “Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open internet and threaten free speech everywhere.”
Musk, in true Musk form, responded to the news with a retweet saying “Freedom of speech is worth fighting for”.
Freedom of speech is worth fighting for https://t.co/nt71m3wPOF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2024
Inman Grant said this content wouldn’t be shown on broadcast television, so why have the ability to distribute it freely on the internet?
“Indeed, a key issue of concern for me throughout this process, was the ease by which children were able to access this extremely violent stabbing video on X. As the national online safety regulator, I expect responsible companies to be taking action in relation to this type of content,” she explained.
“And by its own admission, X Corp routinely does. For example, upon our request, X globally removed a compilation video featuring footage of the Bondi stabbing, the Wakeley stabbing, and an older video of the killing of two Victorian police officers, when notified by eSafety following the attack.”
Inman Grant pointed out that other social media platforms like Meta, Snap, Microsoft, TikTok, Reddit, Google and Telegram removed the content due to the video violating their terms of service and standards of decency.
“So, it was a reasonable expectation when we made our request to remove extremely graphic video of an attack, that X Corp would take action in line with these publicly stated policies and practices.”
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