eSafety commissioner weighs in on Elon Musk’s White House role

Australia’s eSafety commissioner says she will enforce rules on social media “without fear or favour” as Elon Musk is set to take on a senior position in Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

Julie Inman Grant has had a somewhat hostile relationship with the tech baron since getting into a legal row with his social media platform X.

She tried forcing X to take down graphic videos of high-profile stabbings in Sydney earlier this year, prompting Mr Musk to call her a “censorship commissar”.

eSafety ultimately abandoned its legal pursuit of X, but tensions have remained, with Mr Musk going after the Albanese government’s attempts to crack down on social media companies.

Commenting on the billionaire’s nomination to head up Mr Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency next year, Ms Inman Grant said on Monday her “focus” was on Australians.

“My job is not to be concerned with what Elon Musk is doing, unless he is hurting the safety of Australians,” she told the ABC.

“And that is why we will continue to regulate without fear or favour and to make sure that we’re safeguarding Australians online safety, and that has always been my focus.”

Mr Musk, who has positioned himself as a free speech absolutist, has taken aim at the government’s social media ban for kids under 16 and its misinformation Bill, which Labor dumped after conceding there was “no pathway” to get it through the Senate.

The legislation would have put the onus on social media companies to address unintentional and intentional falsehoods spreading on their platforms.

It would have also expanded the media watchdog’s powers to take on the companies, including the ability to slap them with fines as high as 5 per cent of their global revenue for not combating misinformation.

The Albanese government’s focus on social media comes as Western countries scramble to put guardrails on a largely unregulated sector.

Increasingly, what happens online is having real world consequences.

Misinformation swept platforms following the deadly Bondi stabbings in April, with prominent alternative social media influencers falsely accusing a Jewish student of carrying out the attack.

Days later, after an Assyrian Orthodox priest was stabbed mid-liturgy, demonstrators clashed with police outside the clergyman’s church, with Russian state media fuelling the ire online.

Much of the false information, along with highly graphic videos of both incidents, spread on Mr Musk’s platform.