Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has decided to withdraw Federal Court action against Elon Musk’s X Corp regarding the platform’s hosting of footage showing the stabbing of a religious leader in a Sydney church. Instead of pursuing the matter in court, she will rely on an ongoing case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a final decision.
eSafety had requested X Corp to remove approximately 60 instances of the stabbing footage from its platform worldwide. While X complied by blocking the content in Australia, it refused to remove the videos internationally. This led the Commissioner to seek a legal ruling on the issue.
Despite facing criticism from Mr. Musk for her actions, Ms. Inman Grant defended her office’s decision, emphasizing the importance of preventing violent content from circulating online. She noted that other tech companies like Google and Meta usually comply with content removal requests from eSafety.
The Court initially granted an injunction against X to prevent access to the video globally, but later ruled that the jurisdiction could not extend beyond Australia’s borders. Following this setback, Ms. Inman Grant decided to pursue a different legal avenue for addressing the issue.
The abandonment of the court case means that eSafety may incur significant legal costs. However, the Commissioner remains committed to promoting online safety and expects responsible companies to take action against harmful content on their platforms. Please rewrite this sentence.
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