Australian Court Upholds Local Censorship Powers of eSafety Commissioner Inman Grant

Australian Court Upholds Local Censorship Powers of eSafety Commissioner Inman Grant

SYDNEY — The ongoing fight between X owner Elon Musk and Australia’s top online censor, unelected eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, over her office’s power to ban specific content in the country and abroad, has moved into murky territory with both sides claiming partial victories.

Inman Grant has dropped her case in Australian federal court, which sought to force X to take down a user-posted video depicting the assassination of an Assyrian Orthodox bishop in a Sydney church on April 15 during a church service.

However, the eSafety Commissioner stressed that she intended to continue her legal action in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, where X started a parallel challenge against her authority. Inman Grant also said her commission “had another five legal cases against X, including over the platform’s failure to reveal how it was combating child sexual abuse material,” The Associated Press reported.

Musk celebrated eSafety dropping the federal case by posting, “Freedom of speech is worth fighting for.”

The case underscored Inman Grant’s censorship powers within Australia, however, as judges ruled that X’s decision not to remove the video internationally, but to geoblock it for Australia, was adequate.

The compromise is consistent with Musk’s non-absolutist approach to free speech. The entrepreneur has stated that X would “respect the speech laws of each country” so that the platform he purchased in October 2022 will not become “a free-for-all hellscape.”

As XBIZ reported, Inman Grant has in the past been questioned by progressive free speech advocates in Australia over her campaigns to target adult content. More recently, conservatives and libertarians have begun raising concerns about the powers granted to the country’s top censor — an unelected former tech exec born in the U.S., who worked for Twitter before Musk purchased it — with some calling for her ouster.

Musk, a powerful voice among conservatives worldwide, publicly unleashed his criticism of Inman Grant as soon as her office challenged the geoblock approach and demanded the complete removal of the video.

“Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?” he posted.

Three weeks before Inman Grant dropped the federal case, Justice Geoffrey Kennett withdrew an injunction requiring X to hide the content globally, AP reported.

Kennett agreed with X’s argument that the global ban was not reasonable, and stated that it “clashed with an international concept of the ‘comity of nations,’ which recognizes that countries’ laws have territorial limits.”

“If given the reach contended for by the commissioner, the removal order would govern the activities of a foreign corporation in the United States and every country where its servers are located,” Kennett wrote. “It would be a clear case of a national law purporting to apply to persons or matters over which, according to the comity of nations, the jurisdiction properly belongs to some other sovereign or state.”

Kennett upheld the geoblock compromise, however, effectively buttressing Inman Grant’s controversial powers to censor content within Australia.

A recent article by an Australian libertarian think tank quoted Inman Grant’s statements at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in 2022, where she advocated for “a recalibration of a whole range of human rights that are playing out online, from freedom of speech to the freedom to be free from online violence.”

As XBIZ reported, the vocally anti-porn Inman Grant has acknowledged having conversations with U.S.-based, religiously-inspired lobby NCOSE — formerly Morality in Media — and even appeared on an NCOSE podcast at the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation summit in July 2021, shortly after the Australian Parliament passed the Online Safety Act.

In November 2021, Australian progressive investigative outlet Crikey published a lengthy report on Inman Grant’s obsession with banning online porn.

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

AV in Focus: A Guide to Unlocking Compliance With Clarity

The age verification era isn’t coming — it’s here. Laws are already on the books in numerous U.S. states, as well as in the U.K., France and beyond.

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Endorses National AV Bill

Philippe Dufresne, privacy commissioner of Canada, has voiced support for a bill that would impose fines of up to $500,000 on adult sites that do not implement age verification for Canadian viewers.

Ricky Johnson Launches 'Ricky's Resort' Through YourPaysitePartner

Ricky's Room studio honcho Ricky Johnson has launched his latest site, RickysResort.com, through YourPaysitePartner (YPP).

Industry Attorney Paul Cambria Retires After 50 Years of Practicing Law

After more than a half-century in practice, during which he provided the defense in some of the adult industry's most notable legal cases, attorney Paul Cambria has retired.

2026 XMA Nominations Party Set for Nov. 19 in Hollywood

The 2026 XMA nominations reveal party will take place at Keys on the Sunset Strip on Wednesday, Nov. 19, with red-carpet arrivals starting at 8 p.m.

New VR Membership Site 'DeepInSex.com' Launches

The new 8K VR membership site DeepInSex has officially launched.

NATS Launches Integrated Content Management System

Too Much Media (TMM) has rolled out an integrated, no-charge Content Management System (CMS) to its NATS platform.

AEBN Reveals Avery Lust as Top Trans Star for Q3 of 2025

AEBN has published its top trans stars list for the third quarter of 2025, with Avery Lust landing atop the leaderboard.

FSC: California's Device-Based AV Law Does Not Apply to Adult

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) put out an advisory today explaining that California's new device-based age verification law does not apply to adult websites.

Reena Sky Launches New Paysite

Reena Sky has launched her new official paysite, ILoveReenaSky.com.

Show More