Elon Musk and his social media company X have accused Australia’s eSafety commissioner of censorship and say they will challenge in court an order to remove content on the site relating to Monday’s Sydney church stabbing.
On Tuesday the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said that X and Meta were issued with a notice to remove material within 24 hours that depicted “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail”, with the companies facing potential fines if they failed to comply.
The notices related to the alleged stabbing of bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at a service at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley. The service was being livestreamed and a recording of it circulated online, along with other videos of the aftermath.
But early Saturday morning Australian time, X issued a statement accusing the watchdog of pursuing global censorship and vowing the company will “robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court”.
The statement from X’s global government affairs team, which was reposted by the company’s owner, Elon Musk, said the company complied with the directive by the commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, to remove “certain posts in Australia that publicly commented” on Monday’s attack.
But it did not believe the orders were “within the scope of Australian law” and it only complied “pending a legal challenge”.
It said that X then received another “demand” from the commissioner that it “globally withhold these posts or face a daily fine” of A$785,000.
Musk said in reposting the statement that “The Australian censorship commissar [sic] is demanding *global* content bans!”.
The Australian censorship commissar is demanding *global* content bans! https://t.co/CRLglUYYIG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2024
The commissioner’s office declined to comment on X’s statement.
It is understood the commissioner made multiple attempts to ensure X had been fully compliant with Tuesday’s order after videos and images of the attack continued to circulate on the platform, despite the company claiming it had complied.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he was shocked but not surprised by X’s statement.
“This is exactly as I would expect from X or Twitter or whatever you would call it: a disregard for the information they pump into our communities, lies and rumours spreading like wildfire and then when things go wrong, throwing their hands up in the air to say they are not prepared to do anything about it,” Minns said on Saturday.
“We have had enough, Sydney has had enough.”
He said the platform allowed rumours about the church stabbing to spread unencumbered in such a way that it fuelled resulting riots, and called for stronger laws governing social media platforms.
“To think about young police officers who have to go into harm’s way to calm down a riot based on a rumour or innuendo means that their job is virtually next to impossible for them.
“It is about time we strengthen rules in relation to the eSafety commissioner or the federal government or penalties that are in place for social media companies, we would all be in favour of that.”
Minns said the government had “wrestled” with the idea of leaving the platform, where he, other ministers and multiple departments including NSW police have accounts, but that to do so would mean only “bad actors” remained on the site.
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, said Australia was “not going to be bullied by Elon Musk, or any other tech billionaire, in our commitment to making sure that social media is a safe space”.
He told reporters in Adelaide that if X wanted to challenge the ban or any fines in court then “we’re up for that fight”.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said the government supported the stance taken by the commissioner.
“The government is united with eSafety in our very clear expectation that social media companies remove this content immediately,” she said in a statement on Saturday.
“If you operate in Australia, you should comply with the law. It’s as simple as that.”
On Friday, the commission said in a statement that it was continuing to “engage with all major social media platforms regarding the resharing and reposting of … content depicting recent violence in Sydney”.
“We expect platforms that benefit from Australians using their service to make genuine efforts to protect our citizens from harmful content and, in particular, to enforce their own terms of service.
“In relation to X Corp, eSafety is working to ensure the company’s full and complete compliance with Australian law. We are considering whether further regulatory action is warranted.
“eSafety is disappointed that process has been unnecessarily prolonged, rather than prioritising the safety of Australians and the Australian community.”
In its statement, X said it respected the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction.
However, it added, “the eSafety commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally”.
“We will robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court.
“Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open internet and threaten free speech everywhere.”
The statement said the “recent attacks in Australia are a horrific assault on free society”.
“Our condolences go out to those who have been affected, and we stand with the Australian people in calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.
“This was a tragic event and we do not allow people to praise it or call for further violence.
“There is a public conversation happening about the event, on X and across Australia, as is often the case when events of major public concern occur.”
