An interesting development in Australia, where the government has been ordering censorship of social media content showing a recent stabbing incident. What’s es

An interesting development in Australia, where the government has been ordering censorship of social media content showing a recent stabbing incident. What’s especially odd about the court order in Australia is that they are demanding that Twitter/X censor content globally, not just within Australia: > The regulator’s lawyer, Christopher Tran, had argued Monday in court that geoblocking Australia did not meet the definition of removal of the footage under Australian law. As for Twitter/X’s response: > X said the Australian regulator had demanded the platform “globally withhold these posts or face a daily fine of $785,000.” > “X believes that eSafety’s order was not within the scope of Australian law and we complied with the directive pending a legal challenge,” the Global Government Affairs account said. “While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the eSafety Commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally.” > “We will robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court,” it added. Personally I think the normalization of governments censoring speech and content in allegedly democratic countries is scary, and opens the door for bigger and more abusive censorship regimes. Another recent example was in Brazil, where a single Supreme Court judge has been ordering censorship of X/Twitter users and also adding gag orders so that censorship is not visible to the public.