 "Elon Musk’s X wins appeal against Australia ban on Charlie Kirk shooting footage: 'Uphold free speech'")
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has won an appeal that overturns an Australian decision restricting access to footage showing the fatal shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, a ruling that had followed intervention by the country’s online safety regulator.
Following Kirk’s death at Utah Valley University on September 10, the eSafety commissioner sought to have videos of the shooting formally classified in Australia. The Australian classification review board ruled the footage “refused classification”, a decision that enabled eSafety to issue notices requiring social media platforms to geo-block the content for Australia-based users.
X challenged the ruling, appealing against decisions covering two separate videos of the Kirk shooting. The company also appealed a similar refused classification applied to another video, which showed the attack on Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, in August. X was successful in all cases.
Arguments presented by X
In the Kirk matter, X argued that the footage showed only brief violence, with no weapon visible. The company said the video was grainy and that the camera quickly moved away from the victim towards the surrounding crowd.
X maintained that the footage was not excessively detailed, gratuitous, or offensive, and described it as a neutral objective record of “a notorious public event of historical and political significance that prompted extensive public discourse”. The platform compared the video to footage of the assassination of John F Kennedy.
The majority of the classification review board found that, “notwithstanding the heinous nature of the event”, the footage was not gratuitous, exploitative or offensive to a degree that warranted a refused classification. However, the board noted that a more explicit portrayal, or footage presented with different editing or commentary, could have met the threshold for refusal. As a result, the classification of the videos was changed to R18+.
A minority of the board disagreed, stating that the post was “a shareable video for the likely purposes of entertainment and/or personal gain (such as likes, shares, or views) for distribution to users of a social media platform”. They argued that the footage could not be likened to the Zapruder film of John F Kennedy’s assassination, pointing out that the JFK footage was released 15 years after the killing, “once emotions around the matter had subsided”.
Quick Reads
View AllReacting to the outcome, X welcomed the ruling in a post on its global government affairs account.
“X fought this case to uphold free speech and the importance of access to information about matters of public significance. We remain committed to protecting these principles.”
X welcomes the decision of Australia’s Classification Review Board to unban videos of the attacks on Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska in Australia. At the request of the eSafety Commissioner, the Classification Board classified footage of the attacks as “Refused Classification,”…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) December 16, 2025
A spokesperson for the eSafety commissioner also welcomed the decision, while noting that the board’s determination to apply an R18+ rating means platforms “have obligations to prevent R18+ material being displayed to Australians under 18”.
The regulator has not issued notices this week to any platforms over footage from the Bondi beach terror attack circulating on social media. It said that while the images have been distressing, they have not crossed the threshold for refused classification.
Platforms have instead been advised to apply sensitive content labels and interstitial measures, including blurring, in line with their own content policies.
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