THE Federal Court has rejected an attempt by Canberra’s chief censor, aka the eSafety Commissioner, to extend a temporary order for Elon Musk’s social media company X to hide videos of the stabbing of Sydney Eastern Orthodox bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
The eSafety Commissar has been trying to force Musk to take down about 60 instances of the footage, showing an attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Wakeley in Western Sydney, in April. The bishop does not object to video footage of the attack being on social media.
Under the so-called Online Safety Act, passed in 2021 under Scott Morrison, the Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, an American who dutifully touted her censorship ideology at the World Economic Forum two years ago, has the power to demand the removal of so-called “class 1 material”, under threat of significant fines.
The video clip of the stabbing attempt is hardly gory or shocking, but the Albanese government was desperate to censor it. Is this because it raises questions about why a mentally ill man with a knife met no resistance in killing six people with a knife at the Bondi Westfield shopping centre the day before?
As Cairns News previously reported, there is a stark difference between what played out as another public terrorism psyop at Bondi Junction and the failed real attack on the outspoken, anti-globalist Christian Bishop Mar Mari.
In the first event, the public was fed a highly edited series of very short, obviously edited video clips featuring the zombie-like man wandering around a shopping centre holding a knife. There was no visible blood on this man despite allegedly stabbing several people. The videos soon disappeared.
However the video clip showing the Bishop Mar Mari attack went viral worlwide, prompting the eSafety Commissioner to raise the alarm. Musk agreed to geoblock the posts, meaning most Australian users could no longer see them, but he refused Inman-Grants’s removal notice, on the basis that it would have had a global effect.
Elon Musk threatened to sue in response, but the regulator jumped in first with an application in the Federal Court for a temporary injunction to force Musk to hide the videos. That court order has been in place since April 22, but Musk has ignored it.
On Monday morning Justice Geoffrey Kennett denied the eSafety Commissioner’s application to continue the existing order beyond 5pm Monday, when it was due to expire. The case will be wound up in coming weeks when the judge is expected to present his reasons.
Senator Matt Canavan called the ruling a “big win for free speech” and One Nation spokesman and former MP Craig Kelly posted on X: “If the eSafety Commissar has lost the case in the Federal Court she has no alternate but to resign immediately.”
Last Friday lawyer Bret Walker, appearing for Musk, said the company had not complied with the injunction because the Commissioner’s initial take-down notice was not valid. The argument has yet to play out between the two parties.
