Australia bans graphic videos of Charlie Kirk assassination, Iryna Zarutska train stabbing
Three graphic videos from the US, including Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the brutal stabbing murder of Iryna Zarutska, have been banned in Australia.
Australia’s online safety watchdog has ordered social media platforms to take down posts showing the brutal stabbing murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a train in the United States, the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the beheading of a Dallas motel owner.
In a statement to news.com.au on Monday, the eSafety Commissioner said it had received multiple complaints last month about the three videos, which were then reviewed by the Classification Board and assessed as Refused Classification (RC).
Removal notices for multiple posts sharing the videos were sent to Elon Musk’s X and Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, with threats of fines of $825,000 per day for each offending post.
“RC content cannot legally be hosted, shared, distributed, sold, or accessed in Australia. Content that is classified RC is content that exceeds what can be included in the R 18+ and X 18+ ratings,” an eSafety spokesperson said.
“In practice, this means material that has been classified RC cannot legally be shared in Australia and is subject to removal notices by the eSafety Commissioner.”
Ms Zarutska, 23, was stabbed in the neck in a horrific unprovoked attack on a commuter train in Charlotte, North Carolina on August 22, shortly after sitting in a seat in front of alleged killer Decarlos Brown Jnr, 34.
CCTV footage of the senseless killing — which showed Ms Zarutska looking up with terror in her eyes, cowering in fear and covering her face with her hands as she bled to death — sparked worldwide outrage after going viral on social media platforms including X, where it was amplified by the likes of Mr Musk and US President Donald Trump.
Over the weekend, a number of right-wing influencers shared notifications they had received from X informing them that their posts showing the uncensored video of Ms Zarutska’s stabbing breached Australian law and had been geo-blocked.
“One of my posts about Iryna Zarutska has been flagged as illegal by … the Australian eSafety Commissioner,” wrote Belgian right-wing activist Dries Van Langenhove.
“I knew the Australian government was crazy since Covid and since they locked up nationalist activists, but why are they demanding X censors a European activist talking about an American murder?”
Dutch far-right commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek said she had received “the exact same notification and 20-page letter for one of my posts about Iryna Zarutska’s murder”.
“The Australian ‘eSafety commissioner’ threatened to fine X $825,000 (AUD) for each day the post would remain up, so it’s now no longer visible in Australia,” she wrote.
“To summarise that for you: Australians are paying taxes so bureaucrats can censors posts from European activists talking about the murder of a Ukrainian woman in America.”
Malaysian influencer Ian Miles Cheong wrote, “The Australian government is forcing X to remove my video footage of Iryna Zarutska’s murder. They’d love to take it down worldwide but neither X nor I are subject to their global censorship policies so it’ll only be withheld from being displayed in Australia. Insane.”
The eSafety Commissioner’s 20-page letter to X Corp, dated September 26, flags 23 individual posts containing “class 1 material” under the Online Safety Act 2021.
Among the accounts listed include conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, US independent journalist Nick Sortor and alternative news website HeadlineUSA, which initially obtained the CCTV footage.
On September 16, Australia’s Classification Board deemed a 28-second portion of the CCTV footage depicting the murder as Refused Classification (RC).
“On 11, 17, 18 and 19 September 2025, the eSafety Commissioner became aware of 23 instances of class 1 material which is provided on your service, specifically material depicting, expressing or otherwise dealing with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults and is likely to be Refused Classification (RC) by the Classification Board,” the letter read.
“Under Section 111 of the Act, you must comply with a requirement under a removal notice given under Section 109 of the Act to the extent that you are capable of doing so.
“Failure to comply with the Notice may result in enforcement action, including the commencement of civil penalty proceedings for a civil penalty order of up to a maximum penalty of $825,000 for a single contravention by a body corporate.
“[Failure] to comply with the Notice means that you commit a separate contravention of Section 111 of the Act in respect of each day following the period specificied for compliance with the Notice.
“This may attract additional penalties of up to $825,000 each day for a single contravention.”
Brown Jnr, a violent schizophrenic who had been arrested at least 14 times since 2007, is facing a state charge of first-degree murder, as well as one federal count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.
On August 29 he was committed to a state psychiatric hospital for a 60-day evaluation to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial for murder.
Following widespread outrage over Ms Zarutska’s killing, North Carolina last week passed new criminal justice legislation dubbed “Iryna’s Law”, which lowers barriers for the death penalty and puts greater restrictions on bail and pre-trial release for certain violent offenders.
Kirk, 31, the founder of conservative organisation Turning Point USA, was gunned down while speaking in front of thousands of students at Utah Valley University on September 10.
Alleged assassin Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with aggravated murder and multiple other offences.
The same day, Chandra Nagamallaiah, 50, a manager of motel in Dallas, Texas, was stabbed and then beheaded in front of his family by an employee.
Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, an illegal immigrant from Cuba, has been charged with capital murder.
“These three incidents represented an unprecedented number of extremely violent videos that were extensively posted and shared online over a short period of time, and widely accessible to Australian users, including children,” eSafety said.
X was hit with a similar take-down notice last year, with the eSafety Commissioner ordering the platform to hide tweets containing footage of the live-streamed stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Wakeley, Sydney on April 15.
The regulator initially sought a global removal of the videos, which remained geo-blocked to Australian users, but ultimately backed down after a federal court battle.
In October, the eSafety Commissioner effectively abandoned the fight altogether after agreeing to end judicial review of its orders, which X had challenged in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
“It is regrettable the Commissioner used significant taxpayer resources for this legal battle when communities need more than ever to be allowed to see, decide and discuss what is true and important to them,” X Corp’s Global Government Affairs account posted at the time.
Full eSafety Commissioner statement
“eSafety received multiple complaints about graphic footage showing the violent killings of Iryna Zarutska, Charlie Kirk and the beheading of a Dallas motel owner, which were circulating online during September 2025. The Classification Board reviewed the footage of these events and assessed the footage as Refused Classification (RC). RC content cannot legally be hosted, shared, distributed, sold, or accessed in Australia. Content that is classified RC is content that exceeds what can be included in the R 18+ and X 18+ ratings.
“In practice, this means material that has been classified RC cannot legally be shared in Australia and is subject to removal notices by the eSafety Commissioner.
“eSafety engaged with major platforms, sharing with them the URLs of the violative content we found on their platforms and informing them of the Board’s assessment. As per usual practice, we initially did this voluntarily while continuing to monitor the virality of the content on their platforms and reminding them of their obligation to remove such material under the Online Safety Act, including their obligations under Industry Codes and Standards.
“Where Refused Classification footage remained available in Australia, despite eSafety’s initial engagement, eSafety issued removal notices to both X and Meta. In its covering letters, eSafety confirmed that geo-blocking would be sufficient to comply with the notice.
“eSafety’s notices applied only to the relevant graphic footage, assessed as RC by the Classification Board – the notice does not refer to opinions or political commentary surrounding the RC footage.
“These three incidents represented an unprecedented number of extremely violent videos that were extensively posted and shared online over a short period of time, and widely accessible to Australian users, including children. eSafety was disappointed to see how inconsistently and slowly the major platforms were to place sensitive content labels, or interstitials, on this violative content, in alignment with their own policies. eSafety understands many Australians were concerned that their children had been served this content directly into their feeds and without protective filters.
“To be clear, eSafety recognises the importance of news reporting and public commentary on current events and has no role in regulating opinion, commentary or political speech. It does have a role in keeping Australians safe online and preventing the accidental, inadvertent or unnecessary exposure to harmful violent imagery of real killings where that footage has been assessed by the Australian Classification Board as being Refused Classification.”
Originally published as Australia bans graphic videos of Charlie Kirk assassination, Iryna Zarutska train stabbing
