eSafety Commissioner issues notice to X after Zarutska killing videos circulate
Australia has made a major move following a widely circulated video documenting the killing of a Ukrainian refugee in New York.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has issued a removal notice to social media giant X (formerly Twitter), after a news video of the killing of Ukrainian-born US resident Iryna Zarutska was circulated.
The widely circulated video documents the stabbing death of Ms Zarutska on a light rail train in New York earlier this year.
The eSafety commissioner said it had received multiple complaints from Australians about extreme graphic footage appearing online.
Australia’s Classification Board reviewed the material and assessed it as “Refused Classification (RC)”, meaning it cannot be legally hosted, shared, distributed, sold or accessed in Australia, and is subject to eSafety removal notices.
“While continuing to monitor the virality of the material, eSafety initially gave platforms an opportunity to remove it voluntarily, before issuing removal notices to both X and Meta. In its covering letters, eSafety confirmed geo-blocking would be sufficient to comply,” the commissioner said in a statement.
“To be clear, eSafety’s notices applied only to the graphic footage assessed as RC, not to any reporting, opinions or political commentary posted alongside it.”
In response, the Free Speech Union of Australia has filed an urgent application in the Administrative Review Tribunal to challenge the validity of the removal notice.
The FSU challenge comes after the eSafety Commissioner last year called on X to globally suppress footage of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney.
The Federal Court refused to grant an injunction and Justice Kennett described a worldwide ban as not a “reasonable step”.
The commissioner subsequently withdrew the case.
FSU director Reuben Kirkham said the commissioner has again overreached by targeting reporting on a case of worldwide public interest.
“The eSafety Commissioner appears not to have learned from last year’s debacle,” he said.
Dr Kirkham said the “repeated attempts to impose global censorship” make Australia “an international outlier in freedom-of-speech terms”.
“The Online Safety Act was never meant to empower a single bureaucrat to decide what news the world can and can’t see,” he said.
Dr Kirkham said the FSU would “continue to fight for due process, transparency, and the right of Australians to access lawful information online”.
“From the Baumgarten decision to Kirkham, the tribunal has made clear that eSafety is not above the law,” he said.
“It must act within statutory limits and give proper reasons for its decisions. Australians deserve a regulator that respects rights – not one that censors the news.”
Originally published as eSafety Commissioner issues notice to X after Zarutska killing videos circulate
