Elon Musk and the Australian safety commissioner are currently in a legal battle over content published on X.
The Australian Prime Minister has expressed his disgust at Elon Musk’s actions to defend the content’s place on the platform and according to The Guardian, calling him an,
“arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law.”
The Australian court had ordered a 2 day injunction against X to hide posts globally containing the footage of the alleged stabbing of Bishop, Mar Mari Emmanuel on the 15 April 2024 in Sydney church.
The esafety commissioner had directed X to remove the posts from X for the global audience however, X has only blocked them in Australia pending a legal challenge. By only removing them from Australian users X still allows those outside of Australia as well as Australians using a VPM to access the content.
The content is deemed as class 1 under Australian classification law which is offensive violence with a high degree of detail.
The safety commissioner wishes to block violent videos from a wide audience and protect those on social media.
Why does Musk defend the content?
Elon Musk has argued that his idea for X is to promote free speech and to represent the truth. He posted a tweet which said,
“If any country is allowed to censor content for all countries which is what the Australian safety commissioner is demanding then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire internet”
Who posted the content?
Ralph Babet, the United Australian Party Senator posted the video on X and Facebook on Monday. Babet believe that people should witness the content and has spoken out against those wishing to have it removed, stating that they are “a threat to democracy”.
Esafety will be seeking a permanent injunction and civil penalties against X.
A further hearing is set to take place in the near future to determine whether X will take down the content.