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Source: Dailymail.co.uk.
AUSTRALIA – The Australian government has tried to force a Canadian man to delete an ‘offensive’ post about a UN trans expert, threatening X owner Elon Musk with an $800,000 fine if it is not removed from the platform.
Chris Elston, who goes by the name of ‘Billboard Chris’ on X and lives in Canada, revealed on Tuesday he had been sent an Orwellian ‘removal notice’ from the Australian Government’s eSafety Commissioner.
Mr Elston’s alleged offence had been to share a Daily Mail story in late February about Teddy Cook, a female-to-male trans Australian activist who landed a job on a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert panel drafting care guidelines for trans and non-binary people.
In his post, Mr Elston misgendered Cook and make other ‘disparaging’ remarks.
Cook, 45, who describes himself as a ‘professional queer, man of trans experience’, has advocated for taxpayer-funded surgeries for all trans Australians.
His now-private social media posts are awash with X-rated material, including public nudity, bondage parties, trans orgies and even a photo of a man apparently having sex with a dog.
While Daily Mail Australia does not suggest those revelations should exclude Cook from advising the WHO on trans healthcare, some have questioned his appropriateness for the role.
On March 22, Mr Elston received a letter from the government-run eSafety Commissioner, demanding that he remove the ‘deliberately degrading’ post.
‘An ordinary reasonable person in the position of the Complainant would regard the Material as being offensive,’ an unnamed delegate of the eSafety Commissioner wrote to Mr Elston.
‘This is because the Material singles out the Complainant to personify the poster’s contempt for transgender identity as well as equating transgender identity with a psychiatric condition.’
It is unclear if Cook lodged the complaint with the ESafety Commissioner himself.
Daily Mail Australia approached Cook for comment.
But the order demanded that if the post was not removed within 24 hours, X would be fined up to $782,500.
Mr Elston, a vociferous campaigner against ‘gender ideology’, vowed he would not remove the post, claiming the Australian government made a ‘lot of assumptions’.
‘I do not hold that woman in contempt for her transgender identity, because I maintain that gender identities do not exist,’ Mr Elston wrote.
‘We are called males and females, and that’s that. I also feel strongly that radical queer theorists have no business drafting anything to do with medical policy.’
However, X must have taken notice of the removal order because the original post was subsequently deleted.
Daily Mail Australia asked X whether it had removed the post but the Elon Musk-owned company declined to comment.
It appears the post was just geo-blocked in Australia as it is still visible in other countries.
Yet, in a complete mockery of the ‘removal notice’, Mr Elston subsequently re-shared a picture of the original post, which can be viewed in Australia.
His post has since been viewed almost 55,000 times.
The Australian government’s attempts to police online speech were widely criticised.
David Limbrick, MP for South Eastern Metropolitan in Victoria, said the eSafety Commissioner was a ‘danger to free and open discussions on sensitive topics’.
‘The e safety commissioner is ‘keeping you safe’ from opinions the Government doesn’t like.’
Writer John Goddard said it was ‘wrong on every level’.
‘It is insane that the Australian government thinks it can be the arbiter of truth,’ he wrote.
Meanwhile, self-described women’s rights campaigner Angela Jones alleged the eSafety commissioner had double standards.
‘I’ve had death threats & have been doxxed & stalked & had my online identity stolen here in Australia & the eSafety Commissioner did nothing,’ Ms Jones wrote.
Another X user sarcastically said it was an ‘excellent use of taxpayers’ money’.
‘A department whose job is to police such abhorrent crimes as this and force the offending posts to be removed,’ they wrote.
‘Bravo Albo. Now about the housing crisis…’
Daily Mail Australia approached the E-Safety Commissioner for comment.
The government body is run by former Twitter Director of Public Policy, Australia & SE Asia Julie Inman-Grant who receives an annual salary of almost $445,000.
It lauds itself as the ‘first government agency committed to keeping its citizens safer online’.
‘eSafety has powers relating to cyberbullying, image-based abuse, and illegal and harmful online content,’ its website states.
