Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday stated that it intends to challenge an order from the Australian eSafety Commissioner demanding the company remove certain posts on the platform regarding the recent attack against a Christian bishop in Sydney.
According to X’s statement, the company received an order from the Australian eSafety Commissioner to remove the relevant posts from the platform globally or face a daily fine of AUD785,000 (approximately $500,000 USD). X, however, has asserted that the posts in question did not violate X’s rules on violent speech and were in line with their internal rules and policy. Though the platform has complied with the order, pending a legal challenge, X believes the order was beyond the scope of Australian law:
While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, 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.
On April 15, a 16-year-old boy was arrested after violently attacking Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney during a service. Emmanuel sustained several stab wounds, and a number of parishioners were also attacked. The attack came only two days after a man was shot dead by police in Sydney after killing six people in a shopping mall on April 13.
Following the two incidents, the eSafety Commissioner became concerned about footage circulating online and asked social media platforms, including X and Meta, the conglomerate that owns platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram, to take down any violent or distressing images and videos of the events. While the vast majority complied with the order, commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that she was not yet satisfied with what had been done to “protect Australians from this most extreme and gratuitous violent material circulating online,” and as a result felt compelled to exercise her powers under the 2021 Online Safety Act to formally compel the platforms to remove all such posts.
On Monday, the eSafety Commissioner took the matter to court and successfully obtained a two-day injunction against X. The agency argued that X had only “geo-blocked” the content instead of deleting it, which means that the content, though not available to be viewed in Australia, can still be accessed by anyone using a virtual private network (VPN) with a virtual IP address outside Australia, and this measure is deemed insufficient under the Online Safety Act.
At a press conference in Queensland on Monday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his support for the eSafety Commissioner, saying:
I find it extraordinary that X chose not to comply and are trying to argue their case… This isn’t about freedom of expression, this is about the dangerous implications that can occur when things that are simply not true, that everyone knows is not true, are replicated and weaponised in order to cause division and in this case, to promote negative statements and potentially to just inflame what was a very difficult situation. And social media has a social responsibility.
Marcus Hoyne, X’s attorney, has sought to delay the court’s decision. Asserting that it was close to two o’clock in the morning in San Francisco, where X is headquartered, when the hearing took place, he was unable to reach his client to respond accordingly. Justice Geoffrey Kennett has since granted an interim order demanding the content to be put behind a notice globally. The order is in place until 5 PM in Sydney on April 24. X will then have the opportunity to overturn the agency’s injunction request on Wednesday before the court makes its final decision.
