‘World-first’ eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant exposed: How taxpayer’s money is being wasted on an endless game of online whack-a-mole – as it’s revealed banned X posts can simply be re-uploaded

The Australian government’s attempts to police online speech have descended into farce after its ‘world’s first’ eSafety Commissioner admitted it was effectively powerless to stop people re-sharing ‘banned’ posts.

On Tuesday, Daily Mail Australia revealed the Australian government tried to force a Canadian man called Chris Elston to delete an ‘offensive’ post about a UN trans expert, threatening X owner Elon Musk with an $800,000 fine if it was not removed from the platform.

Mr Elston, who goes by the name of ‘Billboard Chris’ on X and lives in Canada, refused to delete the post.

When X subsequently complied with the ‘removal order’ by geo-blocking the post in Australia, Mr Elston simply re-shared the offending post. 

In a colossal back-fire for the e-Safety Commissioner, that post alone has been seen over 130,000 times and a concerted campaign to re-share it by others has racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

In response to this publication’s story, Billionaire X owner Musk said: ‘What is the world coming to?’ 

Now, the taxpayer-funded eSafety Commissioner has admitted it can only block or remove the subsequent posts if other complaints are made by the offended party.

‘eSafety’s Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme is a complaints-based scheme,’ a spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘In cases where a new version of the material has been posted after a removal notice has been issued and complied with, we require a new complaint from the targeted Australian resident – or someone authorised to report on their behalf – to take regulatory action.’

This effectively means the ‘world’s first’ online safety regulator could be engaged in an endless game of whack-a-mole as it attempts to police speech online. 

Political figures were lining up to condemn the alleged waste of Aussie taxpayer’s money. 

David Limbrick, MP for South Eastern Metropolitan in Victoria, accused the regulator of bringing ‘our nation into disrepute’.   

‘I want to feel proud to be Australian. I want Australia to be a beacon of freedom in the world,’ Mr Limbrick wrote. 

‘Instead, the world laughs at our stupidity. We need to shift towards the defence of freedom.’

Meanwhile, Independent Liberal member MP Moira Deeming described the e-Safety Commisioner as the ‘Ministry of Truth’, referencing George Orwell’s novel 1984.  

‘We reject your Orwellian dystopia,’ Ms Deeming added. 

Almost 500 civil servants are employed by the eSafety Commissioner and the Australian Communications and Media Authority, according to its latest annual report. 

The eSafety Commissioner lauds itself as the ‘first government agency committed to keeping its citizens safer online’. 

It is run by former Twitter Director of Public Policy, Australia & SE Asia, Julie Inman-Grant, who receives an annual salary of almost $445,000.

Ms Grant, an American who began her career working in the US Congress, worked at Microsoft for 17 years, eventually rising to the role of Global Director for Safety and Privacy Policy and Outreach before she joined Twitter.

She was reappointed for a further five-year term in her role as eSafety Commissioner by the Australian government in January 2022.

Ms Grant serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital SafetyExternal link and, in 2020, was appointed by the Davos-based organisation as one of the world’s most influential leaders revolutionising government.  

The Free Speech Union of Australia has written to Ms Inman-Grant personally to demand the regulator ‘explain why they chose to censor’ Mr Eslton’s post.

‘Australia’s eSafety Commissioner simply has no business in trying to censor someone living in another country for saying it,’ the letter stated. 

‘Nor does she have any business doing so in respect of any Australians who might repeat it.’

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 Australian 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 understood Cook lodged the complaint with the ESafety Commissioner himself.

Daily Mail Australia approached Cook for comment. 

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.

He later share Daily Mail Australia’s story, commenting: ‘The Australian government’s attempt at censoring me has backfired spectacularly.’