Elon Musk promised on Tuesday to battle Australian requests that his social media platform X remove videos of a recent Sydney church stabbing.
On Monday, Australia’s Federal Court gave the platform 24 hours to erase videos of an Assyrian bishop being sliced in the head during a recent incident.
The Australian eSafety Commission requested the court injunction, claiming that X had ignored previous removal notices.
Musk hit out at the watchdog on Tuesday, claiming that the content had previously been removed for users in Australia.
“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA.”
As the deadline approached, the videos were not available to users in Australia, except for those using a VPN or other location-masking service.
Musk claimed Australia was trying to enforce a global ban.
“Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet,” the billionaire posted on X.
‘Absolutely disgusting’
The case will return to court this week, where a judge will decide whether to prolong the interim order.
A third hearing will be held, with eSafety Commission lawyers seeking a permanent injunction and civil fines against X, according to an AFP official.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed Musk, calling him a “arrogant billionaire” who “thinks he’s above the law”.
“The idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out-of-touch Mr Musk is,” Albanese told public broadcaster ABC.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie called for Musk to be thrown in prison, saying he had “no conscience” and his behaviour was “absolutely disgusting”.
“Quite frankly the bloke should be jailed,” she said.
‘Toxicity and hate’
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was allegedly cut in the head and chest by a 16-year-old suspect last week, igniting a disturbance among Assyrian Christian church members in western Sydney.
Australian police have accused the video of the violent attack, which was extensively shared on social media sites, for fueling community tensions.
Many of Sydney’s small Assyrian population fled persecution and conflict in Iraq and Syria.
With its trailblazing “Online Safety Act” passed in 2021, Australia has led attempts to hold digital corporations accountable for what their users say online.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, a former Twitter employee, has been battling a number of court battles with X, aiming to hold the platform accountable for violent and unsettling content.
She has previously expressed concerns about an increase in “toxicity and hate” on the platform following Musk’s takeover.
A commission official said Tuesday that it had also ordered other businesses, such as Google, Snap, and TikTok, to remove the material, which they had done.
“While it may be difficult to eradicate damaging content from the internet entirely, particularly as users continue to repost it, eSafety requires platforms to do everything practical and reasonable to minimise the harm it may cause to Australians and the Australian community,” the spokesperson said.
The watchdog recently slapped X with an Aus$610,500 (US$388,000) fine for failing to demonstrate how it is combatting child sexual abuse content.
University of New South Wales law professor Rob Nicholls told AFP the church stabbing case would test new legal waters.
The eSafety Commission had issued take down orders in the past, and social media giants had always complied. “We haven’t seen this before,” he said.
“It is not as if Australia is unique in having a take down regime associated with content. Most social media businesses have built infrastructure to deal with a take down notice.”
“Perhaps what we need to do is fine tune the law,” Nicholls said.