Australia drops case against Elon Musk’s X over church attack video

Australia has dropped its case against X, formerly Twitter, after a row about removing footage of a stabbing attack on a priest in Sydney. 

The country’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman-Granthad, had threatened fines against X if it didn’t remove graphic footage of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.

The bishop survived the stabbing in April which happened in Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, Sydney, while he was livestreaming a sermon. 

As footage circulated on X, the Federal Court ordered that or not it’s hidden. The social media platform initially refused to comply before later hiding the video to Australian X users. 

Inman-Grant said the choice to discontinue her legal battle with X had been made after weighing “multiple considerations” and that this end result would “likely achieve essentially the most positive end result for the net safety of all Australians, especially children”.

“Our sole goal and focus in issuing our removal notice was to stop this extremely violent footage from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community. I stand by my investigators and the selections eSafety made,” she said. 

X welcomed the news saying it was “heartened to see that freedom of speech has prevailed”. 

Musk later responded personally in a post on X saying, “Freedom of speech is price fighting for.”