Michael Knowles Reveals Global Impact Of Australia’s Speech Battle With Elon Musk
By Leif Le Mahieu
A court battle over censorship between Elon Musk and the Australian government will have massive ramifications for global free speech and journalism, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said on Wednesday in an X thread.
In the thread, Knowles explained how Australia’s e-Safety Commissioner, which he first warned about in January 2023, has been battling Musk’s X for months over the removal of posts related to transgenderism. Recently, the e-Safety Commissioner has taken on X over posts that contain videos of the stabbing of a Christian bishop in Sydney earlier this month. Australia’s government has threatened to fine X over half a million dollars per day if it does not remove videos of the stabbing not only in Australia but for X users across the world.
Knowles said that the Australian government appears to be specifically targeting X for enforcement because of the platform’s allowance for independent research and journalism, as opposed to legacy media. The Daily Wire host argued that the moves from Australia’s e-Safety Commissioner, backed by top politicians, were part of an effort to “silence citizens and journalists worldwide.”
.@ElonMusk is in a battle against the Australian government to stop the World Economic Forum from silencing citizens and independent journalists worldwide. Here’s everything you need to know: 🧵
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) April 24, 2024
Australia’s e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is a dual American and Australian citizen who previously worked at Twitter. Grant is a proponent of the World Economic Forum’s so-called “Safety by Design” initiative, an initiative Knowles predicted in January 2023 would lead to censorship.