War of censorship escalates as Elon Musk fires shots at Australia [Video]

Australia’s online safety regulator has been criticised by X CEO Elon Musk, provoking the ire of the Australian Government and Opposition. Dr Binoy Kampmark reports

ON 16 APRIL, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, issued with authoritarian glee legal notices to X Corp and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to remove material within 24 hours depicting what her office declared to be ‘gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail’. 

The relevant material featured a live-streamed video of a stabbing attack by a 16-year-old youth at Sydney’s Assyrian Orthodox Christ the Good Shepherd Church the previous day.  Two churchmen, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Reverend Isaac Royel, were injured.

Those at X and its executive, Elon Musk, begged to differ, choosing to restrict general access to the graphic details of the video in Australia alone. Those outside Australia and those with a virtual private network (VPN…