Australia’s attempts to ban a graphic video of a stabbing in a church has turned into a global battle between the Canberra government and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X.
A service at an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Sydney was being live-streamed on April 15 when a bishop was repeatedly attacked at the altar.
Four people were stabbed, and a teenager arrested.
A 16-year-old boy was later charged with a terrorism offense.
Soon after the attack, videos of the stabbing began circulating on social media.
The Australian eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, the country’s independent regulator for online safety, issued notices to Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and X - formerly known as Twitter - to remove the footage. The tech companies were threatened with heavy fines if they did not comply.
The videos were classified under Australian law as 'class 1' material, depicting gratuitous or offensive violence.
Meta adhered to the eSafety Commissioner’s order, but X has argued the directive is "not within the scope of Australian law."
It’s insisted that “global takedown orders … threaten free speech everywhere.”
On Monday the confrontation between Canberra and Musk intensified when an Australian court ordered X to temporarily hide the videos. The Australian government wants the footage to be removed permanently.
Musk posted that “our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?”
In a rare show of unity, politicians from across Australia’s broad political spectrum denounced Musk’s attitude about the video.
A government minister Tanya Plibersek said he was an "egotistical billionaire" while the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said he was a “narcissistic cowboy.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told local media that Musk was lacking decency.
“We will do what is necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law but also above common decency and the idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out of touch Mr. Musk is," Albanese said. "Social media needs to have social responsibility with it. Mr. Musk is not showing any.”
Investigators believe the stabbing attack at a church in Sydney was a religiously motivated act of terrorism. Regulators are worried that social media could further inflame tensions between different faiths.
There were serious disturbances outside the Assyrian Orthodox Church after the bishop and three other people were stabbed. None suffered life-threatening injuries.
The church stabbings came two days after six people were murdered by a lone knifeman in a separate attack at a shopping center in Sydney.
The argument over global access to video of the church attack will test how far-reaching Australian laws are.
