Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, speaking on the VivaTech conference in Paris, France.
Benjamin Girette | Bloomberg | Getty Images
PARIS — X CEO Linda Yaccarino took a success at Australia on Friday after a faceoff with online safety regulators.
The Elon Musk-owned social media platform X last week won a reprieve in Australia as a court refused to increase a short lived order blocking videos of a Sydney church stabbing.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed during a livestreamed sermon that was widely circulated online, racking up a whole bunch of 1000’s of views. Following the incident, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the country’s online watchdog, was granted a short lived legal injunction ordering X to cover posts that showed footage of the attack.
In a chat onstage on the VivaTech conference in Paris, Yaccarino accused Australia of overreach over the dispute.
“Where X operates to comply with the law, we’re also not shy after we feel that there’s a very obvious overreach, and where the residents of that specific region are put in danger, or their access to information is compromised,” she said.
“What was recently happening in Australia, there was a necessity for X to arise and protect people to be sure they maintained access to that information in order that they could make up their very own minds,” she added.
On May 13, a federal court judge denied a bid by the eSafety Commissioner to increase an injunction to remove posts on X showing the violent attack of a priest in April.
“The excellent news is that the people prevailed,” Yaccarino, the previous global promoting chief at CNBC parent company NBCUniversal, said onstage. “We’re blissful to be that beacon of sunshine and that place for truth.”
The incident sparked a clash between Musk and the Australian government. On the time, Musk criticized the move as an assault on free speech.
Australia’s eSafety regulator was not immediately available when contacted by CNBC for comment Friday.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in an interview on April 23 that Musk thinks “he’s above Australian law” and called him out for his “arrogance.”
He said that “this is not about censorship,” but about “decency,” and that Musk should “show some.”
In response, Musk posted on X: “I don’t think I’m above the law. Does the PM think he must have jurisdiction over all of Earth?”
The eSafety has previously said that it believes online safety “requires platforms to do every thing practical and reasonable to attenuate the harm it might cause to Australians.”
— CNBC’s Sumathi Bala contributed to this report.
