New escapade or legitimate opposition? Elon Musk announced Tuesday that his social network X would appeal an injunction issued by the Australian courts forcing it to remove videos of a stabbing attack in a Sydney church. This injunction, requested by the Australian body in charge of internet surveillance eSafety, orders X, formerly Twitter, to hide videos showing a Sydney bishop being stabbed during a sermon broadcast live.
The social network ignored requests made to it to remove these images and the billionaire indicated that in the name of freedom of expression, he will appeal this injunction. “We are concerned that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, as called for by Australia’s ‘E-Safety Commissioner’, then what would stop “It doesn’t matter which country controls the entire internet,” the billionaire said on X. “We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal action, and it is stored only on servers in the United States,” he added.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described Elon Musk on ABC as an “arrogant billionaire who believes he is above the law, but also above decency”. “The idea that someone could go to court for the right to distribute violent content on a platform shows how out of touch Mr. Musk is with reality,” Anthony Albanese said. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was injured in the head and chest last week by a 16-year-old boy, leading to a riot among worshipers at the Assyrian Christian church in western Sydney.
Australian authorities have expressed concern that video of the attack, which has spread widely on social media, is fueling tensions. Since the Online Safety Act passed in 2021, Australia has held tech giants responsible for what their users post online.