An Australian Senator sparked controversy by calling for the immediate imprisonment of X, formerly Twitter, owner Elon Musk for his refusal to comply with the Australian government’s demands to remove a video depicting the brutal attack on a Christian Bishop in Sydney last week.
The video, taken from a live stream of the brutal radical Islamic terror attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at his church, quickly went viral on X.
Despite calls from Australian officials and politicians across the political spectrum to remove the footage, Musk has stood firm, asserting that X is a platform for freedom of expression and will not censor content that is not illegal.
Australia’s unelected ‘eSafety Commissioner’ Julie Inman-Grant has ordered both X and Meta to remove the terror attack footage under the Online Safety Act of 2021, which empowers her department to demand the removal of ‘class 1 material’. The Australian Federal Court further ordered X on Monday to block all users from viewing the footage.
While X temporarily complied with the order in Australia pending a legal appeal, Musk warned that a global takedown order violates freedom of speech and sets a dangerous precedent.
“Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?” Musk posted on X.
ustralian Sen. Jacqui Lambie lashed out at Musk in comments to Sky News, accusing him of “creating hatred” by ignoring requests to remove “harmful content.”
She declared, “I think he’s a social media knob with no social conscience, he has absolutely no social conscience. Someone like that should be in jail and the key be thrown away. That bloke should not have a right to be out there on his own ideology platform and creating hatred, showing all this stuff out there to our kids and doing all the rest.”
Lambie also announced her intention to boycott X and called on fellow members of Parliament to do the same.
Musk responded to Lambie’s rant, stating, “This woman has utter contempt for the Australian people,” and later adding, “She is an enemy of the people of Australia.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also targeted Musk, claiming that the X owner “thinks he’s above the Australian law, that he’s above common decency” and is “so out of touch with what the Australian public want.”
Albanese further accused Musk of “trying to lecture Australians on free speech.”
Despite the attacks on Musk and X, the platform has become the number one news app in Australia, suggesting that it may be Albanese who is out of touch with the Australian public.
Meanwhile, Bishop Emmanuel, who is recovering from the attack, has forgiven his attacker and called for his supporters to refrain from retaliation and behave “Christlike.”
The reaction to the video has been almost as disturbing as the incident itself, with politicians and officials seemingly more concerned about censoring the footage of the radical Islamic terror attack than addressing the underlying issues that led to the attack.
An Australian Senator has called for X owner Elon Musk to be jailed for life for refusing to adhere to the Australian government's demands to censor content. Full report here: https://t.co/b1t6FHWajj pic.twitter.com/swKmgOKxjy
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Stephen Dietrich is the publisher of The Horn News