Australian court extends ban on stabbing videos on X

An Australian court yesterday extended an order that X take down videos of a Sydney bishop being stabbed after X chief executive officer Elon Musk vowed to fight the ban.

In a brief hearing, Justice Geoffrey Kennett extended the injunction until May 10.

Australian authorities have argued that video of the attack, which spread widely on several social media platforms, fed community tensions, could encourage terrorism and was damaging to young users.

Australia’s eSafety Commission had sought a court injunction alleging that X ignored earlier removal notices.

Musk on Tuesday said that the content had been removed for Australian users and accused the online watchdog of trying to enforce a global ban.

Lawyers for X said that the Assyrian bishop who was stabbed, Mar Mari Emmanuel, supported the videos being circulated.

“He is strongly of the view that the material should be available,” X legal representative Marcus Hoyne told the court.

Australian Senator Jacqui Lambie yesterday deleted her X account to protest publication of the stabbing footage and called for other politicians to do the same, saying that Musk had “no social conscience or conscience whatsoever” and that he should be jailed.

The Post Millennial online news site wrote on X on Tuesday: “This Australian Senator says @elonmusk should be jailed for allowing free speech on X.”

The post included a video of Lambie saying “the bloke [Musk] should be jailed.”

In a repost of the article, @Rothmus yesterday wrote that Lambie “should be in jail for censoring free speech on X.”

Musk yesterday replied to Rothmus, saying: “Absolutely. She is an enemy of the people of Australia.”

A representative for Lambie declined to comment.

Australian Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neill said that social media companies created “civil division, social unrest ... and we’re not seeing a skerrick of responsibility taken.”

A “skerrick” is an informal term meaning “a little bit.”

“Instead, we’re seeing megalomaniacs like Elon Musk going to court to fight for the right to show alleged terrorist content on his platform,” O’Neill said.

Australian Senator Pauline Hanson said that the order to take down the video was the Labor government’s “convenient excuse to increase their power to control what truths, ideas, information, and opinions you are able to share.”

Separately, Australian police said seven people who posed an “unacceptable risk and threat” to the public had been arrested.

Police said the individuals were linked to the 16-year-old accused of stabbing Emmanuel and adhered to a “religiously motivated extremist ideology.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Hudson said it was “likely” that the group could be plotting an attack, although no specific target was evident.