The Australian government’s attempts to police online speech have descended into farce after the world’s ‘first’ eSafety commissioner admitted she was effectively powerless to stop people from re-sharing ‘banned’ posts.
On Tuesday, Daily Mail Australia revealed that the Australian government tried to force a Canadian man named Chris Elston to remove an “offensive” post about a UN trans expert, threatening X owner Elon Musk with an $800,000 fine if it isn’t removed from the platform was removed.
Mr. Elston, who is called ‘Billboard Chris’ on X and lives in Canada declined to remove the post.
When
In a colossal backfire for the e-Safety Commissioner, that post alone has been viewed more than 130,000 times and a concerted campaign to reshare it by others has generated hundreds of thousands of views.
In response to this publication’s story, Billionaire
Chris Elston (pictured above), who goes by the name ‘Billboard Chris’ on offensive’ post about trans expert Teddy Cook (photo below). He refused to take it down and reshared it, which has since been viewed thousands of times
UN trans expert Teddy Cook is pictured
Now the taxpayer-funded eSafety Commissioner, led by Julie Inman Grant (pictured) – who receives a salary of almost $445,000 – has admitted that he can only block or delete subsequent messages if other complaints are made by the offended party .
Now the taxpayer-funded eSafety Commissioner has admitted that he can only block or delete subsequent messages if other complaints are made by the offended party.
“eSafety’s Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme is a complaints-based scheme,” a spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner told Daily Mail Australia.
‘In cases where a new version of the material has been posted after a take-down notice has been issued and complied with, we will require a new complaint from the targeted Australian resident – or someone authorized to report on their behalf – to take regulatory action .’
This essentially means that the world’s ‘first’ online safety regulator could be engaged in an endless game of whack-a-mole as it tries to police online speech.
Political figures lined up to condemn the alleged waste of Australian taxpayers’ money.
“Where is the world going?”, X owner Elon Musk responded to Daily Mail Australia’s original story (photo below)
David Limbrick, MP for South Eastern Metropolitan in Victoria, accused the regulator of “bringing our nation into disrepute”.
‘I want to be proud to be Australian. I want Australia to be a beacon of freedom in the world,” Mr Limbrick wrote.
“Instead, the world laughs at our stupidity. We must shift to the defense of freedom.”
Meanwhile, independent Liberal MP Moira Deeming described the e-Safety Commissioner as the ‘Ministry of Truth’, referring to George Orwell’s novel 1984.
“We reject your Orwellian dystopia,” Ms. Deeming added.
According to the latest annual report, almost 500 public servants are employed by the eSafety Commissioner and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
The eSafety Commissioner praises itself as the ‘first government agency committed to keeping its citizens safer online’.
It is run by former Twitter Director of Public Policy, Australia and Southeast Asia, Julie Inman-Grant, who receives an annual salary of almost $445,000.
Ms. Grant, an American who started her career in Congress, worked at Microsoft for 17 years, eventually rising to Global Director for Safety and Privacy Policy and Outreach before joining Twitter.
In January 2022, she was reappointed by the Australian Government for a further five-year term in her role as eSafety Commissioner.
In a colossal backfire for the e-safety commissioner, Mr Elston’s new post alone has been viewed more than 130,000 times and a concerted campaign to reshare it has attracted hundreds of thousands of views (the post is pictured, as described in the eSafety Commissioner’s ‘take down notice’)
Ms. Grant is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital SafetyExternal link and was named by the Davos-based organization in 2020 as one of the world’s most influential leaders to revolutionize government.
The Free Speech Union of Australia has personally written to Ms Inman-Grant to demand the regulator ‘explain why they chose to censor Mr Eslton’s post’.
“The Australian eSafety Commissioner simply has no business censoring someone living in another country for saying this,” the letter said.
“She has nothing to do with that when it comes to Australians who could repeat this.”
Ms Grant (pictured) is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital SafetyExternal link and was named by the Davos-based organization in 2020 as one of the world’s most influential leaders to revolutionize government
Mr Elston’s alleged offense was sharing a Daily Mail story in late February about Teddy Cook, an Australian female-to-male transgender activist who had been given a job on a World Health Organization (WHO) expert panel that developed healthcare guidelines for trans and non-transgender people. binary people.
In his post, Mr Elston misgendered Cook and made other ‘disparaging’ comments.
Cook, 45, who describes himself as a “professional queer, man with trans experience”, has advocated for taxpayer-funded surgery for all trans Australians.
His now private social media posts are flooded with X-rated material, including public nudity, bondage parties, trans orgies and even a photo of a man apparently having sex with a dog.
While Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting that these revelations should exclude Cook from advising the WHO on trans healthcare, some have questioned his suitability for the role.
On March 22, Mr Elston received a letter from the Australian government’s eSafety Commissioner demanding he remove the “deliberately derogatory” post.
“An ordinary reasonable person in the complainant’s position would regard the material as offensive,” an unnamed representative of the eSafety Commissioner wrote to Mr Elston.
“This is because the Material singles out the complainant to personify the poster’s disdain for transgender identity and equates transgender identity with a mental illness.”
It is understood Cook himself lodged the complaint with the ESafety Commissioner.
Daily Mail Australia approached Cook for comment.
The order required that if the post was not removed within 24 hours, X would be fined up to $782,500.
Mr Elston, a vocal campaigner against ‘gender ideology’, vowed he would not remove the post.
He later shared the Daily Mail Australia story, saying: ‘The Australian government’s attempt to censor me has backfired spectacularly.”
