Meta complies with eSafety takedown order over Wakeley attack content
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The news: A spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner has said it is satisfied with Meta’s response to its takedown notice over material depicting the stabbing of an Orthodox Christian Bishop in Sydney on Monday night.
The context: On Tuesday, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told reporters that social media platforms X and Meta had been issued with notices to remove material within 24 hours that depicted “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail.”
The companies could face financial penalties if they failed to comply with the order.
On Monday evening, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was leading a service at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley which was being livestreamed when he was attacked. A recording of the incident has since been circulated online.
Inman Grant said: “While the majority of mainstream social media platforms have engaged with us, I am not satisfied enough is being done to protect Australians from this most extreme and gratuitous violent material circulating online […] That is why I am exercising my powers under the Online Safety Act to formally compel them to remove it.”
On Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner told Capital Brief that it is satisfied with the steps Meta has taken in the last 24 hours to comply with the Class 1 notice issued on Tuesday 16 April.
However, it is still assessing the extent to which X has complied with the notice and whether further regulatory action may be required.
The eSafety website defines class 1 material as that which “depicts, expresses or otherwise deals with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified”.
The spokesperson continued that as the situation evolves, eSafety will continue to engage with major platforms, as necessary, regarding their approach to responding to content of the attacks being reshared and reposted.
“eSafety will employ its full suite of powers under the Online Safety Act when they are required to protect Australians from extreme violent content. This includes issuing Class 1 notices to platforms providing access to this material.”
The sources: eSafety Commission statement, The Guardian
