Australia has given up its legal fight to have footage of a Sydney church stabbing removed from Elon Musk's social media platform X.
Police declared the attack on Bishop Mar Marie Emanuel in April a terrorist incident, which was broadcast live online and sparked riots outside the church.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner, an independent regulator, has threatened X and other social media companies with hefty fines if they do not remove videos of the stabbings, fearing they could encourage further violence.
The incident was seen as a test of Australia's ability to enforce online safety rules for social media giants.
A federal court ordered X to temporarily suppress the video, but he refused to comply, saying the order was invalid.
X, formerly Twitter, eventually blocked access to the video in Australia, but users were able to easily fix the issue using a VPN.
Julie Inman-Grant, who once worked at Twitter, called for the video to be removed globally, with Musk calling her a “censor.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Musk an “arrogant billionaire.”
Inman-Grant said in a statement on Wednesday that dropping the case due to “a variety of considerations” was “likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children.”
“The sole goal and focus of issuing a takedown notice is to prevent this extremely violent video from going viral and potentially inciting further violence and causing further harm to the Australian community,” she said.
She added that she supported the decision taken by the eSafety Commission.
X previously claimed the commission's order was “illegal and dangerous.”
“The global takedown goes against the principles of a free and open internet and threatens freedom of expression everywhere,” it said in a statement.
“This is a tragic incident and we do not allow people to praise it or call for further violence,” he added.
Ms Inman-Grant previously told ABC that Mr Musk's attention had gained her millions of followers, including death threats and private information about his children being exposed online.
