Musk urged to 'front parliament' over Sydney church stabbing video

The Australian Greens Party is calling for X chief executive Elon Musk to "front parliament" over his refusal to take down a video of the Sydney church stabbing.

It comes as the social media giant ignored Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant's request to remove the video and other misinformation about the recent violence in Sydney.

A 16-year-old boy was charged with terrorism after allegedly stabbing Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel as he delivered a livestreamed sermon at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley on April 15.

The stabbing was followed by a riot sparked by thousands of followers outside the Assyrian Christian church demanding an "eye for an eye".

Videos of the attack spread quickly on social media, which local authorities said fuelled tensions in the community.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb called for social media platforms to do more to prevent the spread of harmful content online.

"I think leading a social media platform should bring with it big social, corporate responsibility," Webb said.

"Images like that online, they need to be removed immediately and not left up there."

In a statement today, X said the posts did not violate its own guidelines, and while it was working to ensure "full and complete compliance", Australian law did not govern how it would proceed and the demands for anything more went "against the principles of free speech and an open internet".

"The Australian censorship commissar is demanding global content bans," Musk said in a post on X, declaring he would "robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court".

X's Global Government Affairs department earlier said it had already complied with initial requests to remove "certain posts in Australia that commented on the recent attack". The social media platform said it was then asked by Grant to "globally withhold the posts".

The platform was warned it would be hit with a daily fine of AU$785,000 (NZ$854,308) if it did not act.

The Greens' communications spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said the refusal to remove the content was "appalling".

"The online tech thugs are operating as if it's the wild west," she said.

"Elon Musk should front up to the Australian people, he should front up here to parliament and argue why his company shouldn't have a social conscience and shouldn't be doing the right thing."

Hanson-Young added she did not think Musk "has the guts to do it".

Parliament is now looking at its options to see how it can get the social media platform to cooperate.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.