Elon Musk's X ban order lifted over Australian church stabbing videos

Sydney:

An Australian court on Monday rejected a bid by the country's cyber security agency for an injunction for the Elon Musk-owned company

Federal Judge Geoffrey Kennett said the request to extend the temporary restraining order granted last month had been denied. The reasons for the verdict would be announced later, the judge said during a short hearing.

The matter was scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday.

The legal battle has sparked heated debates between Musk and senior Australian officials, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who called Musk an “arrogant billionaire” over his objections to the video's removal. Musk has posted memes criticizing the regulatory order, calling it censorship.

Other platforms such as Meta quickly removed the content upon request.

The Federal Court, Australia's second highest court, last month upheld an order from the eSafety commissioner ordering X, formerly Twitter, to remove 65 posts containing footage of the bishop being stabbed during an April 15 sermon in Sydney. on the grounds that this was explicitly violence. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with terrorism over the alleged attack.

Australian users were blocked from viewing the posts, but X refused to remove them globally, saying a country's rules should not control the internet.

The regulator told the court last week that the geoblocking solution offered by X was ineffective for Australians because a quarter of the population used virtual private networks that obscured their location.

Last week, Albanese's centre-left government announced it would launch a parliamentary inquiry to examine the negative impact of social media, saying it has broad control over what Australians see online, almost without control.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)