The letter references Ms Inman Grant’s attempts last year to have the social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, remove or hide graphic video of a stabbing attack on a Western Sydney bishop.<\/p>\n
Mr Jordan chairs a committee that is conducting oversight of how foreign laws and regulations “compel, coerce or influence” companies to censor speech in the US.<\/p>\n
“[Julie Inman Grant] has said certain content that she found objectionable \u2014 content that I don’t think any of us would like because I think it was pretty gruesome stuff \u2014 but she said not only did she want it taken down in Australia, she wanted it taken down in America,” Mr Jordan said.<\/p>\n
“Look, that’s a decision for America. We don’t think we should be having foreign governments tell us how our First Amendment liberties and rights should be handled here in the United States.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Julie Inman Grant has been asked to appear before the US Congress’s Committee on the Judiciary. (Four Corners: Keana Naughton, file)<\/p>\n
The First Amendment in the US Constitution safeguards free speech, and as a result, speech or expression is only restricted in the US in exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n
Mr Jordan said he did not like gruesome content, but his key concern was protecting free expression.<\/p>\n
“Who would want to watch anything like that? But it never stops there, it always goes to political content,” he said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for eSafety has told the ABC it now considers geoblocking content a reasonable response to removal notices.<\/p>\n
That means it asks platforms not to show certain content in Australia, but does not insist on global removal.<\/p>\n
Mr Jordan called that a move in the right direction.<\/p>\n
“But some of the information we have gathered as part of our investigation seems like to make that happen, there’s certain information the user, the American citizen, would have to give to the tech companies that we think could have a chilling impact on speech too,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said he was hopeful Ms Inman Grant would answer his questions.<\/p>\n
eSafety commissioner considering request<\/p>\n
Though congressional committees have subpoena power in the US, they cannot force foreign citizens to testify.<\/p>\n
Ms Inman Grant is considering whether to agree to the congressional committee’s request.<\/p>\n
“It’s important to remember why the eSafety commissioner was established in 2015 as an independent regulator,” her office said in a statement to the ABC.<\/p>\n
“To protect Australians, especially children, from a range of online harms including sexual abuse and exploitation, deepfake image-based abuse, extreme violence and terrorist propaganda, cyberbullying and exposure to age-inappropriate material including pornography, self-harm and suicide promotion.”<\/p>\n
What apps are getting banned in Australia?<\/a><\/p>\n Nine platforms are included in Australia’s world-first social media ban for under 16s next month.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Ms Inman Grant said she was “answerable to the communications minister here and to the Australian parliament, and not to the US Congress”.<\/p>\n “Well, she was just here, she was just talking. So it’s not like she doesn’t know how to get to America,” Mr Jordan said.<\/p>\n “We just invited her to come testify, we hope that she does.”<\/p>\n The letter to Ms Inman Grant accused her of colluding with “pro-censorship” entities, citing an event at Stanford University in California where she gave a speech in September.<\/p>\n “Other attendees and panellists included officials from some of the entities with the worst track records of extraterritorial censorship, including the European Union and Brazil,” the letter said.<\/p>\n Stanford University has been among a number of universities that have been in Republican sights over allegations they colluded with the federal government to suppress conservative speech online<\/a>.<\/p>\n A research initiative at the university that monitored online rumours about possible “election stealing”, and, at times, reported viral posts to social media platforms in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election was named in an inquiry by the House Judiciary Committee<\/a> and accused of working with certain government agencies to censor speech.<\/p>\n America’s big tech lobby group has separately been appealing to the Trump administration to pressure the Australian government into relaxing laws on the sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n