Elon Musk and his social media company X have vowed to fight orders from Australia’s online watchdog to remove content related to the alleged Sydney church stabbing attack.
On Tuesday, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said social media giants X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook parent company Meta would receive a takedown notice.
The notice refers to content showing “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail” following the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, which was captured on an online broadcast of the service.
In a tweet early Saturday local time, Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in April 2022, said: “Australian censorship commissioner calls for *global* content bans.”
Threatened with fines for failing to comply with the order, X’s global government affairs team claimed that the posts it had been ordered to remove did not violate its rules on violent speech.
The matter appears to be personal for Musk and X, as Inman Grant used to work for Twitter under the old regime before becoming eSafety commissioner in 2016.
Australia’s electronic safety watchdog has told Elon Musk and X they could be fined more than $700,000 a day if they do not remove content linked to a stabbing at a Sydney church.
In a statement, which was shared by Musk, the social media giant said that “the recent attacks in Australia are a horrific assault on free society” but vowed to fight the takedown notice.
“The Australian eSafety Commissioner ordered X to remove certain posts in Australia that publicly commented on the recent attack on a Christian bishop,” X said.
‘X believes the eSafety order was not within the scope of Australian law and we complied with the directive pending a legal challenge.
“X has now received a demand from the eSafety Commissioner for X to withhold these publications worldwide or face a daily fine of $785,000.”
The company described the alleged stabbing of the Assyrian church leader as “a tragic event” and said it “did not allow people to praise him or call for more violence.”
“There is a public conversation about the event, in X and across Australia, as is often the case when events of major public concern occur,” X said.
‘While X respects a country’s right to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the Commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content users can see globally. We will vigorously challenge this illegal and dangerous approach in court.
“Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open Internet and threaten freedom of expression everywhere.”
The video of the alleged stabbing, which was broadcast live, has become a sore point for police and political leaders trying to quell fears of further intra-community violence.
The alleged attack was captured on an online broadcast of the church service.
Addressing the media on Friday, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb criticized the “misinformation” following the alleged attack and called on social media sites to do more.
“I think leading a social media platform should come with a lot of social and corporate responsibility,” he said.
“I think to have images like that online, they need to be deleted immediately and not left there.”
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns criticized X on Saturday and said it was time to tighten sanctions on social media companies.
“This is exactly what you would expect from X, or Twitter, or whatever you want to call it: a disregard for the information they pump into our communities, lies and rumors that spread like wildfire,” Minns told reporters.
“Then when things go wrong, they throw their hands in the air to say they’re not prepared to do anything about it.”
In a statement seen by The Guardian, the eSafety Commission said it was continuing to engage with platforms “regarding the sharing and reposting (violent content).”
“We expect platforms that benefit from Australians’ use of their service to make genuine efforts to protect our citizens from harmful content,” the commission said.
‘In relation to X Corp, eSafety is working to ensure the company’s full and complete compliance with Australian legislation.
“eSafety is disappointed that the process has been unnecessarily prolonged, rather than prioritizing the safety of Australians and the Australian community.”
The commission said it expected platforms to comply with their own terms of service and said it was “considering whether further regulatory action is warranted” in relation to X.
Inman Grant told reporters Tuesday that while most major social media platforms had engaged with the commissioner, more needed to be done.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said some content puts the safety of the Australian community at risk.
“I am not satisfied that enough is being done to protect Australians from this gratuitous and extreme violent material circulating online,” she said.
“That’s why I’m exercising my powers under the Online Safety Act to formally force them to take it down.”
A 16-year-old boy was charged with the church stabbing, and on Friday night, a 45-year-old man was arrested at a Fairfield Heights home and charged with rioting and threats of violence, causing fear.
The man was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.
Police hope high-visibility patrols in the region will curb the conflict after a knife-wielding teenager allegedly hit Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, 53, who was delivering a sermon on Monday night.
The stabbing, which has since been declared an act of terrorism, sparked a riot outside Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, which left dozens of police officers injured.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said investigators believed the attack met the criteria for a terrorist act, but declined to go into further detail.
Elon Musk bought Twitter in April 2022 largely due to claims that free speech on the platform had been invaded.
The billionaire has regularly clashed with governments over alleged censorship attempts, including a recent dispute with a Brazilian Supreme Court judge over banned accounts.