Billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform escalated its dispute with the Albanese government overnight by defying a federal court order to remove footage of an alleged Sydney terror attack.
A war of words was sparked after Musk refused to take down a video showing the moment Sydney Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was allegedly stabbed by a teenager on April 15.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, backed by a rare united front of Australian politicians, wants the "extreme violent video content" deleted from servers as other social media platforms have done.
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On Wednesday, the Federal court extended a take-down order sought by the government requiring X to remove the violent material.
The social media platform has restricted the posts about the alleged attack in Australia, but is refusing to remove them from around the world.
Overnight X Global Government Affairs insisted the clip did not incite or encourage violence.
"X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia," it said in a statement.
https://twitter.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1783477514645434862?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"Our legal challenge is focussed on two key issues. First, we believe that these posts should not have been banned in Australia at all.
"The content within the posts does not encourage or provoke violence and fits within the Australian legislation's category that permits content that can be reasonably considered as part of public discussion or debate."
X argues no government should have the authority to globally remove content.
Bishop Emmanuel earlier said the video material should remain online.
But the eSafety Commissioner insists a global ban is required to protect Australians.
