Australia’s internet regulator has been called to testify before the US Congress over concerns she is curbing free speech in America.
In a letter to eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, prominent US Republican Jim Jordan said her enforcement of Australia’s Online Safety Act (OSA) “imposes obligations on American companies and threatens speech of American citizens”.
He described Ms Inman Grant as a “noted zealot for global takedowns” and requested she appear before congress by 2 December, days before Australia’s social media ban for under-16s starts.
A spokesperson for the commissioner said she was considering whether to agree to the request.
In a statement, the spokesperson said Ms Inman Grant was “responsible for enforcing the laws of Australia” and “accountable to Australia’s Minister for Communications and the Australian Parliament”.
“There’s nothing eSafety is doing that prevents American companies from displaying whatever they want to Americans,” the statement added.
In his letter on Tuesday, Mr Jordan, chair of the Committee of the Judiciary, said Ms Inman Grant’s “expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s OSA – including your claim of extraterritorial jurisdiction to censor speech outside of Australia – directly threatens American speech”.
“As a primary enforcer of Australia’s OSA and noted zealot for global take-downs, you are uniquely positioned to provide information about the law’s free speech implications,” Jordan wrote.
He also cited the legal action taken by Ms Inman Grant last year against Elon Musk’s X platform to remove videos of a religiously motivated Sydney church stabbing for its global users.
The attack – which was livestreamed – was declared a terrorist incident and the internet watchdog threatened X and other platforms with hefty fines if they did not remove the videos, arguing it could incite further violence.
X refused to comply, and the case was dropped, though the platform did later block access to the videos in Australia.
In his letter, Jordan accused Ms Inman Grant of having “colluded with pro-censorship entities” in the US in order to facilitate Australia’s – and other countries – “global censorship regimes”.
The letter referenced a speech that Ms Inman Grant gave at Stanford University earlier this year, saying this was “troubling” and accusing the university of “past efforts” to censor “lawful American speech”.
He wrote that global content takedown orders were “concerning because they harm the free speech rights of those outside of Australia’s jurisdiction and set the precedent that other governments may do the same”.
