Australian regulator says Musk’s X should not set limits of internet law

Elon Musk’s X has policies to take down harmful content when it chooses but should not be allowed to overrule Australian law in deciding what can be viewed there, a lawyer for the cyber regulator told a hearing into video of a bishop being stabbed.

X, formerly Twitter, is fighting an order by the e-Safety Commissioner to remove 65 posts showing video of an Assyrian Christian bishop being knifed mid-sermon in Sydney last month, in what authorities called a terrorist attack.

“X says … global removal is reasonable when X does it, because X wants to do it, but it becomes unreasonable when X is told to do it by the laws of Australia,” Tim Begbie, the lawyer, told a hearing of the Federal Court, Australia’s second-highest.