Elon Musk’s has said “freedom of speech is worth fighting for” after Australia’s cyber safety regulator, eSafety, dropped its federal court case over X Corp’s refusal to block footage of a radicalised teenager stabbing a bishop at a Church in Sydney not just for Australians, but for users of the platform worldwide.
Freedom of speech is worth fighting for https://t.co/nt71m3wPOF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2024
The case has been portrayed as a battle for control of the internet and goes to the heart of a central and as yet unresolved issue in an increasingly online world, namely, whether Government-led attempts to control the distribution within a country of what it regards as ‘harmful’ online material should be allowed to impinge on the rights of those beyond its borders to access that same material.
An initial ruling by federal judge Geoffrey Kennett last month overturned orders that videos of the bishop’s stabbing were to be hidden because they contained what Australian authorities argue is terrorist content that might influence others.
That decision still required ratification by the court, and a case management hearing had been due to take place at a later date. However, the country’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman-Grant, said on Wednesday that the watchdog has decided to drop the action following Judge Kennett’s ruling.
“I have decided to discontinue the proceedings in the federal court against X Corp in relation to the matter of extreme violent material depicting the real-life graphic stabbing of a religious leader at Wakeley in Sydney,” she said, adding: “I stand by my investigators and the decisions eSafety made.”
Grant went on to cite the prudent use of public funds as one of the reasons for dropping the case, although critics say it was also increasingly apparent that the Australian state’s argument in favour of a global ban on the material was legally indefensible.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed in the head during the April 15th attack in Christ the Good Shepherd church, which caters largely to western Sydney’s Assyrian community. The outspoken bishop, who has questioned the Muslim faith and has a global following, was stabbed by a 16-year-old boy as the church service was being streamed live on the internet. The attacker allegedly made comments in Arabic referring to insults against “my Prophet” before the attack.
Following the stabbing, the Australian federal court ordered Elon Musk’s X to hide videos of the attack from users globally, after the country’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, launched an urgent court case seeking an injunction.
Under the Online Safety Act (2021), the eSafety Commissioner has the authority to make legal orders requiring social media platforms to take “all reasonable steps” to remove ‘class 1 material’ – i.e., extreme material, including footage of terrorist incidents – within Australia under threat of hefty fines.
Read More: “Free Speech Prevailed” Says Elon Musk as Australia Drops Bid to Censor Internet Globally
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