In Australia, X removed the content, but it did not remove it globally.
A violent video that was uploaded to X (which was formerly known as Twitter) has been removed off the platform by the independent authority for online safety in Australia.
On April 15, a clergyman was stabbed in Sydney, Australia, and the news of the incident, much like other horrifying incidents that have occurred in recent times, was shared on the internet. eSafety, the national consumer protection agency of Australia, has demanded that the video be removed from all social media networks. However, X only prevented users in Australia from watching the video, which is something that can be readily circumvented by using a virtual private network (VPN). eSafety claims that Meta, Google, and TikTok have removed it. In response to eSafety’s demand that it be completely removed, Elon Musk, CEO of X, referred to the request as an assault on the right to free speech and stated that the rules of a single nation could not be used to regulate the entire world, as reported by The Register.
In spite of the fact that they had abandoned their struggle against X, eSafety continued to express their frustrations. “Our sole goal and focus in issuing our removal notice was to prevent this extremely violent footage from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community,” Julie Inman Grant, the commissioner of eSafety, declared. “We wanted to make sure that this footage did not go viral.” “Most Australians accept this kind of graphic material should not be on broadcast television, which begs an obvious question of why it should be allowed to be distributed freely and accessible online 24/7 to anyone, including children.”
Grant claims that X did, in fact, remove a video that was uploaded to the internet that included this attack along with two other instances of stabbing. As more evidence that the platform ought to completely remove the video, she also provides specifics on the violence policy that X presented to the European Commission in October of last year. “…our service has clear rules that prohibit violent and hateful entities, perpetrators of violent attacks, violent speech, sensitive media and the synthetic and manipulated media policy,” according to the legislative document. “For the avoidance of doubt, we strictly adhere to our policies concerning illegal content and we continue to remove illegal content, including terrorist content, from our platform.” Taking everything into consideration, she considers the removal of the video to be a “reasonable request” for X to fulfill.