Australia dismisses case against X for stabbing videos

Australia abandoned its legal bid to force X (formerly Twitter) to remove videos of a Sydney church stabbing attack, citing the case's potential to undermine online safety efforts.

Australia has dropped a high-stakes legal campaign to demand that Musk’s social media site X remove footage of a church stabbing in Sydney that was broadcast on the internet.

The eSafety Commissioner, an independent regulator, had warned X and other tech companies of fines to remove the video of the April attack on a bishop at a Syriac Orthodox church in Wakeley. The police described the attack as a terrorist act and the violence following the event led to riots near the church.

The case was perceived as an examination of the country’s preparedness to penalize targeted social media companies for failure to adhere to the country’s laws on online safety. The Federal Court had temporarily restrained X from producing or publishing the videos in Australia, but the company failed to comply with the order stating that the order was not legitimate.

Despite the eventual banning of the videos by X, the latter was still viewable using VPNs by the Australians. The eSafety Commissioner asked for the removal of the content worldwide and this led Musk to refer to her as a ‘censorship commissar‘ while PM of Australia Anthony Albanese referred to Musk as an ‘arrogant billionaire. ’

On Wednesday, Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant stated that “based upon multiple considerations, it is likely to result in the most positive outcome to the development of online safety in Australia, and the abandonment of legal proceedings,” was announced.

X’s global affairs team rejoiced in this decision as they deemed it as a win for “freedom of speech” They further referred to the global takedown orders as “gross violations of the fundamental right of free speech on the internet. ”

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Inman-Grant stated that she intended to prevent the violent footage from turning into a ‘viral video’ and thus provoking further violence. Still, in the ABC interview, she said that Musk’s attention led to a ‘pile-on’ by his supporters, including death threats.