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Australia drops legal fight against X over church stabbing video
CNN
Australia’s eSafety commissioner has dropped her legal bid to force Elon Musk’s social media site X to hide a violent video of a church stabbing in Sydney from global users.
Australia’s eSafety commissioner has dropped her legal bid to force Elon Musk’s social media site X to hide a violent video of a church stabbing in Sydney from global users. Julie Inman Grant had sought a Federal Court ruling after X failed to fully comply with a takedown order issued under the country’s Online Safety Act following the incident in April. Instead, Inman Grant said Wednesday she would “consolidate action” concerning the removal notice in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), an independent review process that examines decisions taken by the commissioner. “After weighing multiple considerations, including litigation across multiple cases, I have considered this option likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children,” she said in a statement. The eSafety commissioner had wanted X to hide the video for users beyond Australian borders. Musk criticized the request as an excessive overreach by an unelected official that could set a precedent for other countries to demand the removal of sensitive material. “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?” Musk posted on X in April.