Elon Musk: Australia drops charges against X over stabbing videos

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

Declared a terrorist incident by police, the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in April was broadcast live online and led to riots outside the church.

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

The case was seen as a test of Australia's ability to enforce its online safety rules against social media giants.

The Federal Court had temporarily ordered X to hide the videos, but he refused to comply, saying the order was invalid.

X, formerly Twitter, eventually blocked access to video in Australia, but users could easily get around this by using a VPN.

Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant – who herself worked for Twitter – had called for the video to be removed globally, prompting Mr Musk to label her a “censorship commissioner”.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded by calling Musk an “arrogant billionaire.”

In a statement released on Wednesday, Ms Inman-Grant said that due 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 objective in issuing our removal notice was to prevent these extremely violent images from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and causing further harm to the Australian community,” she said.

She added that she stands by the decisions made by the eSafety Commission.

X had previously argued that the commission's orders were “illegal and dangerous.”

“Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open Internet and threaten freedom of expression everywhere,” he said in a statement.

“This is a tragic event and we do not allow people to praise it or call for more violence,” the statement added.

Ms Inman-Grant previously told ABC that Mr Musk's attention led to a build-up of millions of followers – which included death threats and leaking his children's personal information online.