X says it has complied with eSafety notice, wants content to remain online
Social media platform X says it believes it has complied with a notice issued by Australia’s eSafety commissioner to remove content relating to the Wakeley church stabbing.
In a post by the platform’s global government affairs team overnight, X said it wanted to provide an update on the legal challenges in Australia:
The eSafety Commissioner required X to remove posts containing a video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, filmed by an innocent bystander. [The bishop] has expressed his desire for the video to remain online.
X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia.
X’s legal challenge is focused on “two key issues”, it said. The first is that the platform does not believe posts should have been banned in Australia “at all”.
The content within the posts does not encourage or provoke violence and fits within the Australian legislation’s category that permits content that can be reasonably considered as part of public discussion or debate.
Secondly, X said it opposed any attempt for a global takedown of content because “we believe that no government should possess such authority”.
X believes in respecting the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, and also believes that Governments should not be able to censor what citizens of other countries see online, and that regulators should stay within the boundaries of the law. We believe these principles are important to defend and we will continue to do so.
To catch up on the latest regarding X/Elon Musk v Australia’s online safety regulator, Josh Taylor explains below:
Key events
Operation to rescue pilot whales stranded on WA beach wrapped up yesterday evening
An operation to save more than 150 pilot whales that had stranded on a Western Australia beach has wrapped up.
The Parks and Wildlife Service of WA confirmed 28 long-finned pilot whales died after stranding at Toby’s Inlet, near Dunsborough, yesterday:
As of yesterday afternoon a large number of stranded whales had been returned to the ocean and had not been sighted by a spotter plane, with officials “hopeful that the pod will not return to the shallower water.”
Four pods had spread across roughly 500 metres yesterday, with officials rushing to the scene to coordinate a rescue response alongside the community. Parks and Wildlife yesterday said:
Scientists and veterinarians are continuing to collect samples and data from the whales before the final whales are removed from the beach. This data will hopefully help scientists understand more about the species and their behaviour.
Last night, SharksWA confirmed all whale carcasses had been removed from the beach. People should remain cautious of sharks in the area, it said.
Dutton says Australia shouldn’t ‘dictate’ what content other countries can view on social media
Peter Dutton has defended X’s ability to keep a video of the Wakeley church stabbing on its platform globally despite requests from the eSafety commissioner to take it down, stating Australia can’t “dictate” what other countries do.
But Dutton supports the content being taken down in Australia, he told the Today show:
I’d love to say that it could be taken down so that no kid across the world could watch it, [and] we strongly support the commissioner’s position in relation to taking it down so that Australians can’t view it. But we can’t pretend that Australia can dictate to other countries around the world what people see within their countries …
So I just think we need to be realistic about what the options are here. We can’t police the whole internet across the world, but we can influence what happens in Australian society.
This is similar to comments he made yesterday:
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, was also on the program and denied Australia was “trying to control the internet globally”.
We’re not trying to do that, but this violent filth shouldn’t be accessible.
Shorten said to the X boss, Elon Musk: “You may run your company, but you don’t run Australia and our laws [and] if we want you to take it down, we expect you to respect that.”
Video of Wakeley stabbing available under post from X where it says content has been removed
As we just reported, X has provided an update on its legal challenge against Australia’s eSafety commissioner, stating it had complied with a direction to remove content from the Wakeley church stabbing.
However, underneath the post from the platform’s global government affairs team (which we quoted in our previous post), the video is available to watch in a reply to the post, as of 7.45am AEDT.
The United Australia party senator Ralph Babet previously came under fire from his parliamentary colleagues for sharing the video of the church stabbing, which also remains on his X account at the time of posting.
X says it has complied with eSafety notice, wants content to remain online
Social media platform X says it believes it has complied with a notice issued by Australia’s eSafety commissioner to remove content relating to the Wakeley church stabbing.
In a post by the platform’s global government affairs team overnight, X said it wanted to provide an update on the legal challenges in Australia:
The eSafety Commissioner required X to remove posts containing a video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, filmed by an innocent bystander. [The bishop] has expressed his desire for the video to remain online.
X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia.
X’s legal challenge is focused on “two key issues”, it said. The first is that the platform does not believe posts should have been banned in Australia “at all”.
The content within the posts does not encourage or provoke violence and fits within the Australian legislation’s category that permits content that can be reasonably considered as part of public discussion or debate.
Secondly, X said it opposed any attempt for a global takedown of content because “we believe that no government should possess such authority”.
X believes in respecting the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, and also believes that Governments should not be able to censor what citizens of other countries see online, and that regulators should stay within the boundaries of the law. We believe these principles are important to defend and we will continue to do so.
To catch up on the latest regarding X/Elon Musk v Australia’s online safety regulator, Josh Taylor explains below:
Dutton says there is bipartisan support to do ‘whatever we humanly can’ to address violence against women
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says there is “bipartisan support to do whatever we humanly can” to address violence against women.
Speaking on the Today show, he commented on recent alleged domestic violence deaths across the country and said:
There’s no lack of bipartisanship support – every level of government wants to come together to do everything we can. There’s record amounts of money being put in each year.
The NSW government is talking about bail laws at the moment, which I think is part of it, to keep [alleged] offenders away from committing very violent acts, but there’s so much more before that has to happen as well. And there are lessons from royal commissions that haven’t been learned …
There’s bipartisan support to do whatever we humanly can to resolve the issue. But as you say, society is failing at the moment.
Man and baby found after going missing in Sydney national park
The man and baby who went missing in in Sydney’s south overnight have been located safe and well, NSW police have confirmed.
Ben Cullen, aged 39, and Roam Cullen, aged 3 months, had last been seen on Sir Bertram Stevens Drive, Royal National Park, about 8.15pm last night.
When they failed to return home and could not be found or contacted, officers were notified and began inquiries into their whereabouts.
Following inquiries and an appeal for assistance, they returned home about 6.30am this morning, police said.
Good morning
Emily Wind
And happy Friday – welcome back to the Australia news live blog, and many thanks to Martin for kicking things off. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage today.
See something that needs attention? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: [email protected].
Let’s get into it.
Benita Kolovos
Crown Melbourne has undertaken ‘significant work to transform itself’, gaming minister says
Continuing from our last post: A Victorian royal commission in 2021 found Crown Resorts unfit to run its Southbank premises after concluding its conduct was “illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative”.
But it did not lose its licence to operate. Instead, commissioner Ray Finkelstein recommended Crown be given two years to reform itself under a government-appointed special manager.
Private equity giant Blackstone has since bought Crown’s three casinos in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
The minister for gaming, Melissa Horne, says:
The VGCCC and the Special Manager have noted that Crown Melbourne has undertaken significant work to transform itself – and its transformation efforts must continue.
This isn’t set and forget – we’re further enhancing the VGCCC’s powers to ensure what happened in the past at Crown Melbourne can never happen again.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian government to strengthen powers of state gambling watchdog
The Victorian government is set to introduce new laws to ensure Crown Resorts continues to run Melbourne’s only casino to the highest standards.
The minister for gaming, Melissa Horne, has announced she will be working on legislation to strengthen the powers of the state gambling watchdog, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC).
It comes after the VGCCC last month ruled Crown could keep its licence to run the Melbourne casino, saying it had made a “significant turnaround” from past illegal behaviour.
As part of the arrangement, Crown will be required to continue implementing its transformation plan under a direction from the watchdog.
Horne says the government’s legislation will include increasing penalties if Crown does not comply with the VGCCC’s statutory direction to implement its plan.
It will also allow the VGCCC to issue penalties to Crown’s “close associates” if they breach the legislation that governs casino operations in Victoria – the Casino Control Act 1991.
Hundreds to gather in Marsden Park to farewell Faraz Tahir
A family has reunited in their grief as they prepare to farewell the security guard Faraz Tahir who sacrificed his life in facing a killer, AAP reports.
Hundreds of mourners are expected to gather today at a Marsden Park mosque in Sydney’s north-west in honour of the man described as a national hero. Tahir was one of the six victims killed at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April in a mass stabbing rampage.
A prayer service organised by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will be open to the public to pay their respects at the Masjid Baitul Huda.
Three of Tahir’s brothers, an uncle and a nephew visited the mosque yesterday in preparation for his funeral. The eldest, Muzafar Ahmad Tahir, said his brother was a brave man who showed strength from a very young age.
The head of the family said he believed Tahir would be safe in his new home in Australia.
Tahir had fled persecution in Pakistan before arriving in Australia in 2022, intending the country to be his final home.
Man and baby missing in Sydney national park
A man and a baby are missing in a national park in Sydney’s south, NSW police say.
Ben Cullen, aged 39, and Roam Cullen, aged 3 months, were last seen on Sir Bertram Stevens Drive, Royal National Park, about 8.15pm yesterday.
When they failed to return home and could not be located or contacted, Sutherland shire police area command began inquiries.
Police and family hold serious concerns for both Ben and Roam’s welfare as this is out of character, police said in a statement, urging the public to contact police or Crime Stoppers with any information.
Ben is described as being of Caucasian appearance, 177cm tall, medium build, with short brown hair and blue eyes.
He was last seen wearing a navy-blue shirt and black pants.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news blog. I’m Martin Farrer bringing you the best overnight stories before my colleague Emily Wind takes over.
Our top Australian story today is that Westfield security guards in Victoria have claimed that their requests for more protection were not acted on in the months before the mass stabbing at Bondi Junction.
Sydney’s Imams Council is expected to hold a press conference in Lakemba this morning to discuss the Wakeley terror incident. Seven teenagers were arrested on Wednesday in counter-terrorism raids after they were linked to the teenager accused of the alleged attack on an Assyrian bishop in his church in Wakeley 11 days ago. A 14-year-old boy was among five teenagers charged with a range of terrorism offences after the police raids.
Meanwhile, hundreds of mourners are expected to gather today at a Marsden Park mosque in Sydney’s north-west to farewell security guard Faraz Tahir, who died in the mass stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April. More on that soon.
The Australian son of a 68-year-old Palestinian woman with ill health has expressed his “shock and surprise” after her temporary visa was cancelled on the grounds that she poses a risk to Australia’s national security. Fatma Almassri, whose 27 children and grandchildren live in Australia, was given a visitor visa in November but it was cancelled last week.
And police are searching for a man and a baby who have gone missing in Sydney’s south – more on that soon.
