Australia's eSafety Commissioner drops case against X over stabbing videos

Australia has abandoned a legal battle to have graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney removed from Elon Musk's social media platform X.

Australia's eSafety Commissioner, an independent regulator, threatened X and other social media companies with hefty fines if they did not remove videos of the stabbing, concerned it could incite further violence.

In a statement last week, Ms Inman-Grant said owing to "multiple considerations", dropping the case was "likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children".

"Our sole goal and focus in issuing our removal notice was to prevent this extremely violent footage from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community," she said.

In a statement on X, the firm's Global Government Affairs team said they were "heartened to see that freedom of speech has prevailed".
It had previously argued the commission's orders were "unlawful and dangerous".

"Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open internet and threaten free speech everywhere," it said in a statement.

- CyberBeat