Musk is going to fight the X order that removed recordings of an Australian church stabbing

Elon Musk, the owner of the social media site X, said on Tuesday, April 23, that the company will contest an Australian order that requires the platform to take down the footage of the Sydney church stabbing event.

Australia’s internet watchdog obtained an order late on Monday, directing X to remove recordings purportedly showing someone stabbing a Sydney bishop in the head during a sermon that was aired live.

X has previously rejected the Australian government’s requests to remove the pictures, and Musk had threatened to file an appeal of the order on the grounds of free speech.

“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 tech magnate wrote on X.

“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA,” he said.

PM Albanese of Australia refers to Musk as a “arrogant billionaire.”
Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, called Musk a “arrogant billionaire” who is blind to the pain the videos inflict.

Speaking to public broadcaster ABC, Albanese said, “We’ll do what it takes to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency.”

“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,” he said.

While further disputes awaited, Australia’s eSafety Commission was given a late-night injunction, compelling X to take down the church stabbing video for the next two days.

Even if X restricted the films in Australia, people in other countries may still see them.

Tech giants vs Australia
Following the 16-year-old suspect’s head and chest slashes on bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel last week, members of the Assyrian Christian church in western Sydney erupted into a riot.

Australian government officials have attributed the rise in community tensions to the widely disseminated footage of the violent incident on social media.

Australia has taken steps to make digital companies responsible for the postings made by its users on the internet, including passing the ground-breaking “Online Safety Act” in 2021.

The watchdog recently fined X $388,000 for failing to provide evidence of its efforts to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material.