Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13351707
Australia’s prime minister has labelled X’s owner, Elon Musk, an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law” as the rift deepens between Australia and the tech platform over the removal of videos of a violent stabbing in a Sydney church.
On Monday evening in an urgent last-minute federal court hearing, the court ordered a two-day injunction against X to hide posts globally containing the footage of the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on 15 April. The eSafety commissioner had previously directed X to remove the posts, but X had only blocked them from access in Australia pending a legal challenge.
Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said Musk was “a bloke who’s chosen ego and showing violence over common sense”.
“Australians will shake their head when they think that this billionaire is prepared to go to court fighting for the right to sow division and to show violent videos,” he told Sky News. “He is in social media, but he has a social responsibility in order to have that social licence.”
“What the eSafety commissioner is doing is doing her job to protect the interests of Australians. And the idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out of touch Mr Musk is,” he said.
Shitter gave them the authority when they signed an agreement saying they would do the very thing you’re upset Australia is asking them to do
Either they never should have signed, should announce publically that they no longer support and no longer wish to be a signatory to the statement, or should abide.
They can’t sign things saying they will do everything to help remove these videos globally, and then get upset the first time someone asks them to. It doesn’t matter if it’s Australia or another party to the agreement, they agreed to it.
Sure. If the Christchurch group or Aussie govt wants to call them out for not honouring their agreement, shame them, kick them out, whatever, that’s fine. I’m all for that. Fuck Xitter. I fully understand there’s nothing noble about their motives. There is however a difference between that and legally forcing a platform to censor content worldwide. Australia is claiming legal authority over the entire world, how do you not see the issue there?
I think that the specifics matter. Specifically this video on that platform. I am fairly sure that the court will say the same thing. Again, I’m not a lawyer.
Xitter is pretending that this is about free speech and censorship.
It’s not.
The eSafety commissioner hasn’t asked to remove an objectionable cat video, it’s asked to remove a terrorist video.
If this was a video depicting CSE the world would not even take a breath to demand its immediate removal.
Xitter is being disingenuous in its argument and its signature to the Christchurch Call just serves to further highlight that the individual in charge doesn’t believe that rules apply to him.
Xitter is pretending that this is about free speech and censorship.
It’s not.
Yes it is. Especially considering that Xitter is an American company and this is legal by American law, again, Australia is overstepping its authority. It doesn’t matter that Musk is a PoS. It doesn’t matter that I personally want the video gone myself. What matters is Australia does not have the legal authority to make decisions affecting the entire world.
Your comparison to CSE is disingenuous as CSE is illegal worldwide, or at least in every country that matters. This video is not.
