Judge says eSafety failed to establish global removal of stabbing video on X was a 'reasonable step'
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The news: The online safety regulator failed to convince a Federal Court judge that global removal of video of a stabbing in Sydney's west was a "reasonable step" in response to a notice issued to Elon Musk's X Corp.
The Federal Court published full reasons today for a decision on Monday to reject extension of an injunction forcing X to hide content depicting the stabbing.
Judge Geoffrey Kennett said he had no doubt that removing 65 URLs from X, as requested by the eSafety Commissioner, "would be a reasonable step for X Corp" to take. But he said this is not the legal test for whether the geoblocking solution the social media platform pursued as an alternative met an "all reasonable steps" threshold for content removal.
The context: The eSafety Commissioner announced legal action last month to force X to remove the content and alleging X's non-compliance with its initial removal notice. Kennett then granted the regulator's request for a temporary injunction, ordering X to hide content depicting the stabbing behind a notice.
Before that injunction expired at 5pm on Monday afternoon, Kennett rejected the regulator's interlocutory application for a longer-term injunction, which would have been in place while a court battle on the removal notice itself and X's liability played out. A case management hearing on that matter is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
What they said: "A court in the US (where X Corp is based) would be highly unlikely to enforce a final injunction of the kind sought by the Commissioner; and it would seem to follow that the same is true of any interim injunction to similar effect. This is not in itself a reason why X Corp should not be held to account, but it suggests that an injunction is not a sensible way of doing that," Kennett's reasons said.
The source: Federal Court of Australia
