Elon Musk's X wins legal battle over ban on Australia church stabbing video

Elon Musk-owned X won a legal battle against the Australian online watchdog over imposing a global ban on dozens of videos shared of the church stabbing incidentwhich have been shared and circulated on the social media platform.

The Australian online watchdog eSafety Commissionhad last monthwon a temporary court injunction after X had refused to abide by the regulator's orders to take down the videos.

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However, the legal block on the Sydney church stabbing videoswas overturned by the Federal Court on Monday (May 13).

Federal Court Justice Geoffrey Kennett denied an extension to the temporary order of removal of videos showing the stabbing of a priest in Sydney in April.

Also Read:Australian watchdog seeks removal of stabbing video from X worldwide

"Theorders of the courtwill be that the application to extend the interlocutory injunction... is refused," said Kennett, without stating any reasons for his decision.

X agreed to remove videos in Australia but failed to abide by the demandforworldwideremoval

Australia's eSafety Commissioner said that he wants the company, owned by Elon Musk, to remove 65 video and audio clips in Australiaas well asworldwide. After the injunction, X had to hide nearly 65 postswhichincluded Wakeley church stabbing videos.

The social media site, earlier known as Twitter, had agreed togeo-blockthe posts so that users in Australiaare not able tosee them.

However, the eSafety Commission stated that it was not sufficient.It demanded that the postsbe pulled downby X globally and claimed that they are still easily accessible in Australia by using virtual private networkswhichmaskthe location of a user.

As per the eSafety Commission, virtual private networksare usedby nearly a quarter of Australians.

The online watchdog had expressed worry thatthe video could be usedfor radicalising people online.

However, lawyers representing XCorpsaidthatthere should have been no removal notice against the video as it was not overly graphic, did not meet the legal threshold for removal of the video as per Australian law and failed to glorify terrorism.

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Thislegaldecision is not X's final legal win in the casewhichledto weeks of local debate between Prime Minister Anthony Albaneseand Musk.

Theruling of the courtcannot be seen as a total victory for X since it had not abided by the order to take down the videos worldwide and could face further legal action.

The case will help people understand thelegal responsibilities of the social media platform and the use of geoblocking.

(With inputs from agencies)