The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has labelled the eSafety commissioner’s demands for the global removal of footage of the alleged Wakeley stabbing as “silly”, a comment that appears to put him at odds with his deputy, Sussan Ley.
In an interview on Thursday, Dutton appeared to side with Elon Musk on a key part of the government’s dispute with X over online video of the incident, saying Australia “can’t be the internet police of the world” and that federal law should not influence what content can be seen overseas.
Dutton was scathing of the actions of X, Facebook and other big tech platforms, claiming they were “distributing child pornography and allowing groups to share videos of children being raped”. But on a key question in the federal court proceedings between the eSafety commissioner and X, as to whether the Australian regulator’s orders can apply globally, Dutton appeared to back Musk’s stance.
“We can have a say about what images are online here in our country, we can’t influence what happens elsewhere in the world. I think it’s silly to try that,” he told 2GB radio on Thursday.
“We can’t be the internet police of the world, I know the prime minister’s trying that at the moment,” he said.
“If we have a situation where you’ve got a cleric being stabbed, and that’s inciting violence, the law is very clear about the ability to take that down – but I don’t think the law extends to other countries, nor should it.”
Dutton faces a Coalition party room which includes vocal supporters of Musk and opponents of the eSafety ruling. The LNP senator Matt Canavan claimed on Wednesday “the PM has launched a useless and ineffective jihad against a video that MORE people have seen because of his over the top reaction”.
But Ley said she was “disappointed” in Musk and backed the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, “100%”.
“I’m for X obeying the law, and I’m not for the actions and the statements of our eSafety commissioner being ignored,” Ley said.
The Sky News Australia host Peter Stefanovic said: “But he [Musk] argues that’s fine if you want to mute it here, but we should have no rights to be able to tell X what to do in its own country or other countries beyond our borders.”
Ley responded: “That’s patently ridiculous, of course we should.”
On Monday, the federal court ordered Musk’s X to hide posts containing videos of the Sydney church stabbing from users globally, after the eSafety commissioner sought an injunction. The Australian federal police told the court of fears the video could be used to encourage people to join a terrorist organisation or undertake a terrorist act.
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On Wednesday, the court extended the interim injunction, ordering the posts be hidden from view until 5pm on 10 May 2024, ahead of another injunction hearing.
X and Musk have raised concerns about the global order. X’s legal representative, Marcus Hoyne, told the court on Wednesday there were significant legal issues to do with eSafety’s powers over content overseas.
The eSafety commissioner claimed some of the tweets in question were able to be viewed using a virtual private network connection, suggesting many were still accessible from other countries.
An X spokesperson said on Wednesday: “X is in compliance with Australian law, has restricted all the relevant content in Australia and is removing any content that praises or celebrates the attacks.”
Musk posted this week that “no president, prime minister or judge has authority over all of Earth! This platform adheres to the laws of countries in those countries, but it would be improper to extend one country’s rulings to other countries”.
“Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian “eSafety Commissar” is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?”
Asked on 2GB about the standards accepted on social media, Dutton said online platforms should be held to the same laws that apply offline, raising issues about defamation and discrimination, and adding the owners of said platforms must “act in a responsible way”.