Melbourne, Australia — An Australian judge has ruled that social media platform X is subject to a state's anti-discrimination law, even though it does not have an office in Australia.
Judge Ann Fitzgerald of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal said in a decision made public on Friday that her court has jurisdiction over X Corp. in a complaint about hate speech.
The ruling allows the Queensland Human Rights Commission to hear an allegation that X breached Queensland's anti-discrimination law by failing to remove or conceal hate speech against Muslims.
The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, which filed the case against Twitter in June 2022 before billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk bought and renamed the platform last year, welcomed the decision as “precedent-setting”.
Fitzgerald's decision “paved the way for social media companies to be held accountable for locally accessible content that may violate Australian hate speech laws,” the network said in a statement.
“This is the first such legal victory against a social media company under Australian defamation laws, which could impact all social media companies operating in Australia,” the report said.
X and its Australia-based lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
X has refused to remove material that the network believes denigrates, dehumanizes and demonizes the Muslim community and portrays Muslims as an existential threat.
The complaint concerns material including videos and photos accessible through a link posted on X by an alleged far-right anti-Muslim conspiracy blog written by a US citizen. The material is then commented, copied and shared.
The tribunal accepted the network's request not to identify the blog and its main author, fearing “adverse consequences” for Muslims.
X had argued that the tribunal had no jurisdiction over the company because it had no presence in Queensland and the 'challenged conduct' occurred outside Queensland.
Fitzgerald disagreed, ruling that X “was present in Queensland because it provides a service in Queensland and in my view conducts business in Queensland.”
“The impugned conduct occurred in Queensland, regardless of whether one calls the impugned conduct 'consequential' or actual conduct,” she added.
Fitzgerald ruled Tuesday, but attorneys did not make her reasons public until Friday.
Musk is also fighting in Australia's Federal Court against an internet safety watchdog order to take down the video of a 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbing an Assyrian Orthodox bishop at a Sydney church on April 15.
X agreed to geoblock images from Australian users of what Australian authorities have labeled a terrorist act.
