Australia drops charges against Elon Musk over church stabbing videos

Australia's cybersecurity regulator opted Wednesday to drop its legal battle with Elon Musk's X over graphic images of a stabbing attack on a church on the platform.

The violent incident in Sydney in April was filmed live by a church and footage of the assault quickly spread online, prompting Australia's e-Safety Commissioner to order several social media companies to remove the posts. videos under penalty of fines. X ultimately blocked Australian users from seeing the posts, but the commissioner had sought a federal court injunction to have the posts completely removed from the site.

That effort suffered a setback last month when the Federal Court refused to extend a temporary order to block the posts before a hearing scheduled for later in June. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has now confirmed the legal battle is over.

“I have decided to discontinue proceedings in Federal Court against X Corp regarding the extremely violent material depicting the actual stabbing of a religious leader,” Inman Grant said in a statement.

She added that the “sole purpose” of sending the removal notice to X and others had been “to prevent these extremely violent images from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and causing further harm.” harm to the Australian community.

“I support my investigators and the decisions made by eSafety,” she said. “Most Australians accept that this type of graphic material should not be broadcast on television, which raises the obvious question of why it should be allowed to be freely distributed and accessible online 24/7 at everyone, including children.”

In its own statement, X's global government affairs team welcomed the news that the commissioner “is no longer pursuing legal action against “This case has raised important questions about how legal powers can be used to threaten global censorship of speech, and we are heartened to see that freedom of expression has prevailed,” the statement said.

For his part, Musk responded to another user who praised “Free speech is worth fighting for,” Musk wrote.

The feud between X and the Regulator exploded following the church stabbings. Musk accused Inman Grant of being a “censorship commissioner,” while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Musk an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he's above the law.”

Inman Grant told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday that Elon Musk's criticism had also led to a mobilization of his death threats against me, which resulted in the doxxing of my family members, including my three children, so I believe that with great power comes great responsibility,” she says.

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with terrorism in connection with the stabbing attack.