THE chaos that gripped Sydney took a new turn after videos of a violent stabbing incident inside a local church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley sparked a censorship debate between the Australian government and Elon Musk.
The brutal stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel by a 16-year-old teenager last week sparked protests from angry church members and went viral on social media.
On Monday evening, the Australian federal court ordered Elon Musk to remove videos of the stabbing incident from his social media platform X. The Australian government labeled the incident as a terrorist attack.
The court granted the eSafety commissioner, Australia’s independent regulator for online safety, a two-day injunction requiring Musk’s social media platform to heed the request.
However, a barrister for the cyber regulator said that the X platform had geo-blocked the posts containing the video, meaning Australians could not access them.
However, the video is still available for global users outside Australia including those Australians who used a virtual private network (VPN) connection that made their IP address appear they are outside the country.
The eSafety commissioner argued that footage of the violent stabbing video must be hidden not just from Australians but also from all global users.
Musk’s company raised free speech and jurisdictional concerns over the takedown order, and branded the move by Australia’s independent regulator as an “unlawful and dangerous approach”.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Musk an “arrogant billionaire” for refusing the Australian government’s calls to take down the content. He also slammed the billionaire for choosing “ego and showing violence” over common sense after the X owner accused Australia of censorship.
Musk responded to Albanese, stating that ” no president, no prime minister, or judge has authority over all of Earth,” without naming anyone.
The billionaire also argued he is not above the law, adding that the global takedown orders are improper and must be followed within the country of their jurisdiction.
