Australia may risk a diplomatic spat with the Trump administration if it limits the viewing of a US execution
A history of tech giant legal challenges and US political criticism shows there’s no easy solution for the eSafety commissioner
Australia’s online safety regulator has a few levers to limit the public seeing the US’s planned live stream of an execution but history suggests it will lead to a very public fight.
The Greens have called on the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, and the Albanese government to ensure that the event – if it goes ahead and is livestreamed – is not seen by Australians on TV or their devices.
The eSafety commissioner, under the Online Safety Act, has powers to order platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and X to block Australians from accessing posts that contain content deemed to be “refused classification” under Australian classification law.
While some companies such as Meta will probably apply their own terms of service and prevent the distribution of the video, history suggests others will take a stand that the video should remain on their platforms.
Dive deeper
- A history of tech giant legal challenges and US political criticism shows there’s no easy solution for the eSafety commissioner
- Australia’s online safety regulator has a few levers to limit the public seeing the US’s planned live stream of an execution but history suggests it will lead to a very public fight.
- The Greens have called on the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, and the Albanese government to ensure that the event – if it goes ahead and is livestreamed – is not seen by Australians on TV or their devices.
- The eSafety commissioner, under the Online Safety Act, has powers to order platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and X to block Australians from accessing posts that contain content deemed to be “refused classification” under Australian cla
- While some companies such as Meta will probably apply their own terms of service and prevent the distribution of the video, history suggests others will take a stand that the video should remain on their platforms.