Australian leader criticizes X for failing to remove church violence content

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticized social media platform X for refusing to remove graphic posts about a knife attack on a bishop and priest in a Sydney church last week. X Corp. announced last week it would fight in court an Australian regulator’s orders to take down posts relating to a knife attack in a church as a service was being streamed online. Albanese said on Monday that social media posts, misinformation and dissemination of violent images had exacerbated suffering from the church attack, which the two clerics survived, and a knife attack at a Sydney shopping mall two days earlier which killed six people. X says the posts don’t violate its rules on violent speech.