eSafety drops Federal Court action against X

Australia’s eSafety commissioner has dropped a Federal Court case against X, formerly Twitter, that had tried to remove or block access to a stabbing video hosted on the platform.

The commissioner was able to get a temporary block of certain X URLs in place before it was overturned by the Court.

It had recently flagged intent to find other ways to prevent Australians from accessing the video on X, including blocking access to X via VPNs.

However, the commissioner said today it had decided to discontinue the Federal Court action entirely.

Instead, the sole test of the lawfulness of the content removal notice issued to X will now occur via the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

In a statement, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that all action against X would be “consolidated” into a single AAT case.

“After weighing multiple considerations, including litigation across multiple cases, I have considered this option likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children,” she said.

“We now welcome the opportunity for a thorough and independent merits review of my decision to issue a removal notice to X Corp by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.”

X welcomed the discontinuation of the case in a statement posted to its global government affairs account.

"We welcome the news that the eSafety commissioner is no longer pursuing legal action against X seeking the global removal of content that does not violate X’s rules," it said.

"This case has raised important questions on how legal powers can be used to threaten global censorship of speech, and we are heartened to see that freedom of speech has prevailed."

The commissioner said she stood by the decisions that had been taken around trying to have access to the video blocked or removed.

She alleged that “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.”

The commissioner argued that the Federal Court case had been useful in testing her “novel” powers.

“Through this process, eSafety has also welcomed the opportunity to test its novel regulatory powers - set out under Australia’s Online Safety Act - to protect Australians from online harm,” she said.

“eSafety remains committed to exercising the full range of provisions available under the Online Safety Act to hold all tech companies to account without fear or favour.

“We will not waver from this commitment.”