'Australian censorship commissar' orders X to globally remove video of Islamic terror attack on Christian bishop

A bearded teen complaining in Arabic about insults to Muhammad rushed the sanctuary of an Assyrian Orthodox church in Sydney last week, savagely stabbing Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Fr. Isaac Royel. Australian officials determined that the attack on Christian clergymen, which was captured on video, was an act of religiously motivated terrorism.

While apparently willing to admit the attack was what it appeared to be on video, the Australian government has attempted to erase the video evidence from social media.

X, formerly known as Twitter, indicated Friday that the Australian government has ordered it to remove the video evidence of the anti-Christian attack. While the platform appeared willing to accommodate the Australian eSafety Commissioner regionally, that apparently was not enough for the Australian state, which has since demanded global censorship of the video.

South African billionaire Elon Musk and his company have effectively told the government to pound sand.

The terror attack

Blaze News previously reported that police were dispatched Monday evening to the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, a suburb of Sydney, in response to reports that a "number of people were stabbed."

A 16-year-old radical previously charged for knife-related offenses had rushed the altar with a knife concealed in his hand.

In the video the Australian government appears keen to hide from the public, the attacker can reportedly be heard saying, "If he [the bishop] didn't get himself involved in my religion, if he hadn't spoken about my prophet, I wouldn't have come here. … If he just spoke about his own religion, I wouldn’t have come."

The attacker lunges at Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, a past critic of radical Islam, then repeatedly stabs the 53-year-old bishop.

The bishop and the parish priest who was cut up protecting him survived their injuries.

New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb indicated Tuesday, "We believe there are elements that are satisfied in terms of religious motivated extremism."

"After consideration of all the material, I declared that it was a terrorist incident," added Webb.

Nothing to see here

X's Global Government Affairs team revealed Friday morning that after the attack, "The Australian eSafety Commissioner ordered X to remove certain posts in Australia that publicly commented on the recent attack against a Christian Bishop. These posts did not violate X's rules on violent speech."

Australia's woke commissar is Julie Inman Grant, an American who allegedly turned down a CIA job to work in the U.S. Congress before heading off to work for Microsoft. The censorious commissioner, who also worked for Twitter as the director of public policy in Australia, has been celebrated by the World Economic Forum as among "the world's most influential leaders revolutionizing government."

Grant indicated last week that she personally was not "satisfied enough is being done to protect Australians from this most extreme and gratuitous violent material circulating online," reported News.com.au.

Seeking satisfaction on the matter, Grant indicated she was "exercising [her] powers under the Online Safety Act to formally compel them to remove it."

While convinced "eSafety's order was not within the scope of Australian law," X initially complied with the directive, geo-blocking the relevant content in Australia pending a legal challenge. However, it was apparently met with a subsequent demand to "globally withhold these posts or face a daily fine of $785,000 AUD (about $500,000 USD)."

The Global Government Affairs team noted, "While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the eSafety Commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X's users can see globally. ... Global takedown orders go against the very principles of a free and open internet and threaten free speech everywhere."

Musk noted, "The Australian censorship commissar is demanding *global* content bans!"

Angry censors

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters, "By and large, people responded appropriately to the calls by the eSafety Commissioner. X chose not to. They stand, I think — I find it extraordinary that X chose not to comply and trying to argue their case."

Albanese insinuated that the video evidence of the attack on a Christian cleric amounted to "misinformation."

"We know, I think overwhelmingly, Australians want misinformation and disinformation to stop. This isn't about freedom of expression," said the prime minister. "This is about the dangerous implications that can occur when things that are simply not true, that everyone knows is not true, are replicated and weaponized in order to cause division and in this case to promote negative statements and potentially to just inflame what was a very difficult situation."

"Social media has a social responsibility," added Albanese.

Musk responded Monday, writing, "I'd like to take a moment to thank the PM for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful one."

The tech magnate also noted that it is "absurd for any one country to attempt to censor the entire world."

The prime minister was apparently not the only Aussie official who figured video evidence amounted to "misinformation."

NSWPF Commissioner Web condemned "misinformation," stating, "I think leading a social media platform should bring with it big social, corporate responsibility."

"I think to have images like that online, they need to be removed immediately and not left up there," added Webb.

Tanya Plibersek, Australia's environment minister, suggested Elon Musk's commitment to free speech and transparency just "beggars belief."

"This egotistical billionaire thinks that it's more important for him to be able to show whatever he wants on X or Twitter or whatever you wanna call it today, it's more important for him to have his way than to respect the victims of the crimes that are being shown on social media and to protect our Australian community from the harmful impact of showing this terrible stuff on social media," said Plibersek.

Plibersek enthusiastically noted how Australia has quadrupled the eSafety Commissioner's budget.

With that increased budget, the commissioner had Australian mother and breastfeeding advocate Jasmine Sussex censored for daring to suggest that men cannot breastfeed. The taxpayer-funded commissioner also demanded that X censor Canadian activist Chris Elson over a post criticizing a United Nations-affiliated transvestite.

Australian court demands global censorship

Vastly exceeding his jurisdiction, an Australian judge ruled Monday that X must block the video across the globe.

The Associated Press reported that Justice Geoffrey Kennett demanded that the tech company block all users from seeing the footage, including sovereign American citizens. X has been given 24 hours to "hide" the video.

Stephen Tran, lawyer for the censorious commission, suggested that continued circulation of the footage would cause "irreparable harm."

In the meantime, the Australian censorship regime has been targeting individuals who have shared the video. Popular X user Ian Miles Cheong, for instance, indicated that X had received a report from the Australian government over content he shared but that the platform would not be taking action.

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