International Politics

[Potato]

https://www.afr.com/technology/judge-rebukes-clear-case-of-government-overreach-on-stabbing-video-20240514-p5jdfv

A win for Benji 

The Federal Court has issued a stinging rebuke of the Australian government claim that a court order was required to force Elon Musk’s social media site X to block a video of the April stabbing of a Sydney bishop globally.

Last month, the independent eSafety Commission persuaded the court to grant an emergency global take-down of the video of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at Christ the Good Shepherd Church, which was live-streamed as part of a sermon.

But on Monday, Justice Geoffrey Kennett refused to continue the order.

In his reasons published on Tuesday, Justice Kennett ruled that a global ban would not be considered a “reasonable” step – required by Australian law – because it would likely “be ignored or disparaged in other countries”.

He found there were “powerful” issues with eSafety’s attempt to regulate the global internet. Lawyers for eSafety had argued a global ban was necessary on the 65 specified videos because Australians could circumvent X’s initial block that was limited to this country using simple technical tools.

Justice Kennett wrote that a global ban would clash with a concept called the comity of nations, a mutual recognition by nations of the laws and customs of others.

He said it “would be a clear case of a national law purporting to apply ‘persons or matters over which, according to the comity of nations, the jurisdiction properly belongs to some other sovereign or state’”.

“What X Corp is to be permitted to show to users in a particular country is something that the ‘comity of nations’ would ordinarily regard as the province of that country’s government.”

Such a stupid idea in the first place and an obvious overreach.