A United Australia Party senator has told the government and eSafety Commissioner to “screw themselves” after they ordered social media companies to censor footage of a recent alleged terrorist attack at a Sydney church.
Ralph Babet strongly opposes attempts to remove disturbing images of both the Wakeley incident and the Bondi Junction massacre from the Meta and X platforms, formerly Twitter, owned by Elon Musk.
After Meta complied with the order, the Albanese government and eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant are in a bitter standoff with Musk after he refused to do so.
Musk, who describes himself as a free speech absolutist, says Albanese is effectively allowing Inman Grant to “censor content for all countries” on X.
A UAP senator has told the government to “fuck it” after ordering social media companies to censor footage of a recent alleged terror attack at a Sydney church.
Ralph Babet strongly opposes attempts to erase disturbing images of both the Wakeley incident and the Bondi Junction massacre from the Elon Musk-owned Meta and X platforms.
‘Should Australia’s eSafety Commissioner (an unelected official) have authority over every country on Earth?’ the billionaire asked on his platform.
And he has found a friend in Babet, who defied the government’s wishes by sharing images of the confrontation himself.
Babet maintains that banning such content on social media infringes on personal freedoms.
“At no time in history have those pushing for greater censorship been the good guys,” he said.
‘This has nothing to do with the recent knife attack and everything to do with the censorship of speech that the current government does not like. The recent attacks are simply the excuse the government needed to push its agenda.
Babet maintains that prohibiting this type of content on social networks infringes personal freedoms
Albanese criticized Musk as “arrogant” for “throwing his ego and money into a court case over the right to post more violent content.”
‘The eSafety Commissioner is also nothing more than an activist. He wants to censor the Internet and censor debate and do it in a way that is consistent with his own ideological views.
The Federal Court ordered
X temporarily complied with the order in Australia while seeking a two-day injunction, but argued that a blanket removal order violates the principle of freedom of expression.
“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the US,” Musk posted on X.
Failure to comply with the court’s decision to eliminate positions could result in X being fined nearly $800,000 a day and the executives being charged with contempt of court.
But the risk of fines has not incentivized Musk to act at all. Albanese called him “arrogant” for “allocating his ego and his money to a court case for the right to publish more violent content.”
The Federal Court ordered
The alleged terrorist incident caused riots in the streets.
The Prime Minister noted that this content is “likely to cause distress to people on their platform.”
‘He [Mr Musk] He is someone who is totally out of touch with the values ​​that Australian families have.
‘Other social media operators have accepted the eSafety Commissioner’s decision.
‘Surely social networks need to have some element of social responsibility. This is essentially a common sense stance on the part of the eSafety commissioner.’
Asked whether stronger powers could be given to the commissioner or whether access to X in Australia should be cut off, the prime minister said the government was looking at what action could be taken.
“No one wants censorship here; what we want, however, is the application of a little common sense in not showing or propagating violence online,” said Mr Albanese.
Pictured: Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner