Australia’s online censorship chief has threatened X with a $910,000 fine and forced it to remove a post about a “transgender” male after he complained it “misgendered” him.
Journalist Genevieve Gluck, co-founder of feminist news site Reduxx, shared a copy of a take-down notice sent to X by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on Tuesday labelling her post “cyber-abuse material targeted at an Australian adult”, and demanding it be removed within 24 hours.
The post was a link to a 2024 Substack article, which has been geo-blocked in Australia but can be read here, about Brooke Collins, a male Regulatory Liaison Officer at the Australian Medical Association Victoria who claims to be female and has previously posted BDSM pornography on social media.
Then on Friday Ms Gluck posted a screenshot of an email from X informing her that it had withheld the post in Australia, but not elsewhere, “in order to comply with X’s obligations under Australian law”.
“I have been notified by the Australian eSafety Commissioner that a trans-identified male has lodged a legal complaint against me regarding a Substack post I published about his fetishistic activities in 2024,” Ms Gluck wrote.
“Collins claims the post causes ‘serious harm’ by ‘misgendering’, sharing photos he publicly posted, and questioning his fitness for office. All of the content within the article I wrote was available online. Screenshots were taken from Collins’ OF account and FetLife profile.
“Under Section 88 of the Online Safety Act, the regulator ordered X to remove the post linking to my Substack investigation into Collins. The notice argues that public criticism, misgendering, and questioning a public liaison’s professional suitability constitutes ‘cyber-abuse targeted at an adult’.”
So-called misgendering is a far-left extremist gender ideology concept used to attempt to enforce the use of biologically inaccurate personal pronouns.
Ms Inman Grant has previously clashed with X owner Elon Musk over similar removal notices, and lost a lengthy court battle against Australian woman Celine Baumgarten in February over an X post exposing a Melbourne primary school for running a “queer club”.
In September she threatened to fine X $X825,000 per day unless it removed 23 posts containing CCTV footage of the brutal murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a black career criminal in the US, sparking global outrage about censorship overreach.
The unelected bureaucrat, who earns a taxpayer-funded salary of $536,000 a year, was criticised by Musk for her failed attempts to impose a global censorship regime by forcing X to delete videos she claimed were illegal, and last year threatened to fine X $800,000 over a post calling a biological female a woman.
Last month she launched legal action against Telegram for allegedly failing to detect and delete content, and threatened to ban it in Australia, sparking condemnation online and criticism from NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick.
Mr Ruddick told NSW Parliament on Thursday Ms Inman Grant’s actions against Telegram, as well as The Noticer’s ban from X, saying the timing of both “raises legitimate questions about whether Australian regulators or other agencies are applying pressure on platforms to silence dissenting or independent voices”.
“This battle over free speech will go on and on until we amend the NSW Constitution and the Commonwealth Constitution to enshrine the citizens’ right to free speech, and to place this matter beyond the remit of the state to control in any way,” he said.
Header image: Left, Ms Inman Grant appearing at the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion (RC). Right, the removal notice (Genevieve Gluck).
