Julie Inman Grant

The minister also spoke at the press club where your correspondent, Paul Karp, asked about the need to have more than one e-safety commissioner.

Now, we've spoken to Julie Inman Grant, the current e-safety commissioner.

I mean, I think Paul Karp pointed out that she probably has the worst job in the world.

She gets – well, she is subject to all kinds of abuse, isn't she?

That's the way it looks, yeah.

And that's a lady called Julie Inman Grant at the moment, though she's announced that she's on her way out and going back to the United States.

But certainly, I think... to give any individual who is not you power over what you decide you want to see and do and think is wrong.

And I think whatever you say about the legislation being well-intentioned, the consequences, whether intended or unintended, in terms of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of decision, I just think are appalling.

Um, let's see.

Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is trying to censor the global internet again.

[laughs] This time she's demanding X remove a post by a Belgian nationalist, D- uh, Dries Van Langenhove, about the racist murder of Iryna Zhuravska in the US.

So that's an inconvenient story for leftists, so you have to censor it.

Australia's censorship chief demands X remove Iryna Zhuravska post by Belgian nationalist.

Uh, let's see.

Australia's eSafety commit- uh, Censorship Commissioner, or Commissar we should say, [laughs] Julie Inman Grant, has featured none other than herself in the latest taxpayer-funded propaganda on banning social media for under 16s, because nothing makes more sense than an American, uh, citizen telling Australian...

Yeah, so she's an American there, and, uh, that's just one part of the, uh, censorship agenda.

Labor cabinet minister Murray Watt said the idea of public streaming a firing squad execution was absolutely disgusting, but it's unclear just how much we can do from here in Australia to stop this from being made available on social media platforms.

The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has said she's got no power herself to stop the stream, but called on the platforms themselves to stop it.

In Australia, the death penalty doesn't exist anymore.

So the last execution in Australia was in Victoria with Ronald Ryan in 1967, so next February's the 60th year since that execution.

Mm.

This is Australia's online safety regulator, the online safety watchdog, the commissioner being Julie Inman Grant.

Now, after the Christchurch terror attack in 2019, eSafety gained these powers to issue takedown notices basically compelling social media companies to remove harmful content, and in this case, specifically companies streaming, quote, "Abhorrent, violent material." In 2022, those powers were bolstered so eSafety could order internet service providers as well, so the companies that connect us to the internet, to block that material, too.

But, and it's a big but, those powers are built for material that's already online, and in the case of this planned execution, we're talking about something that's going to be-

The East Safety Commissioner says it does not have the power to preemptively block the planned live stream of a US execution from Australians.

Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says while her powers are limited, social media platforms have a responsibility to protect users from harmful content.

Australian politicians from across the political spectrum have joined calls for the live stream to be halted.

Greens Senator Sarah Hansen-Young says Australian officials should call the US and demand the plan be thwarted, while Labor Cabinet Minister Murray Watt has called it disgusting.