With agreement of both parties, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has today made orders to resolve the proceedings brought by X Corp in relation to a removal notice issued to it by eSafety requiring the company to take all reasonable steps to ensure removal of the material depicting a declared terrorist attack on a religious leader in Wakeley, NSW in April 2024.
eSafety believes that rather than test the interaction of the National Classification Scheme and the Online Safety Act in the context of this particular case, it is more appropriate to await the Federal Government's consideration of a pending review of Australia's statutory online safety framework.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said: "The brief but violent footage shows what NSW police deemed a terrorist attack. There is always a copycat risk with this kind of graphic material, not to mention the damaging impact it may have on children. So much time has now passed that there is no conceivable newsworthiness factor which could credibly outweigh the serious arguments for keeping the material beyond the ready reach of ill or malevolent social media users who could further weaponise it."
The Online Safety Act interacts with the longstanding National Classification Scheme, which was designed to classify films, publications and computer games as a guide to consumer choice or, at extremes, to refuse classification.
The suitability of the Scheme in the fast, global, user-generated, algorithmic-driven online environment in which eSafety operates is expected to be one aspect of Government's consideration of a strengthened and context-appropriate online safety framework for the future.
