Australia’s online censorship chief has asked X to remove a post by a Belgian nationalist about the racist murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in the US.
Dries Van Langenhove, who has been subject to political persecution in his home country and sentenced to one year in jail for supposedly offensive private chat group memes that he didn’t even post, spoke out about the global censorship attempt on X on Thursday.
An email from X to Mr Van Langenhove revealed that eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant had flagged a post of his from September 10, which compared CCTV footage of Zarutska’s murder with CNN’s description of it, as “violating the law(s) of Australia”.
“One of my posts about Iryna Zatutska has been flagged as illegal by… the Australian eSafety Commissioner,” wrote Mr Van Langenhove, who was an independent member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives from 2019 to 2023.
“I knew the Australian government was crazy since covid and since they locked up nationalist activists, but why are they demanding X censors a European activist talking about an American murder?”
One of my posts about Iryna Zatutska has been flagged as illegal by… the Australian eSafety Commissioner 🤨
I knew the Australian government was crazy since covid and since they locked up nationalist activists, but why are they demanding X censors a European activist talking… pic.twitter.com/ILX1Smtxl6
— Dries Van Langenhove (@DVanLangenhove) October 2, 2025
The censorship attempt comes as Ms Inman Grant, an unelected American-born bureaucrat who earns a $450,000/year taxpayer-funded salary, spearheads the Australian government’s social media age restrictions, which come into effect on December 10.
Ms Inman Grant is also responsible for bringing in mandatory search engine age checks, coordinated with a shadowy global “advertising cartel” to silence free speech, tried to censor a critic of radical gender ideology in schools, was criticised by Elon Musk for her failed legal attempts to impose a global censorship regime by forcing X to delete videos she claimed were illegal, and threatened to fine X $800,000 over a post calling a biological female a woman.
Mr Van Langenhove, 31, was first charged in 2019 with violating laws against racism and historical revisionism after left-wing journalists claimed to have exposed “racist” messages posted in a chat group of the Flemish nationalist group he founded, Schild & Vrienden.
In March last year he was sentenced to 12 months’ jail for the memes, fined €16,000, and had his civil rights suspended for 10 years, making him ineligible to be re-elected to parliament, and immediately appealed the verdict.
Van Langenhove appealed, and a judge again found him guilty, but suspended his sentence and reduced his fine to €1,600 after finding that the case had exceeded a reasonable time limit, and overturned the civil rights suspension.
Noticer News understands he is planning to appeal the decision to a higher court, and is raising money for his legal defence on GiveSendGo.
Header image: Left, Julie Inman Grant (Parliament). Right, Dries Van Langenhove (X).
