Billboard Chris wins free speech battle in Australia: ‘Truth and common sense have prevailed’


By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post. (photo credit: #billboardchris)

A tribunal in Melbourne, Australia, has ruled in favor of Canadian activist Chris “Billboard Chris” Elston, overturning a government order to remove one of his social media posts expressing his views on gender identity, under that country’s Online Safety Act. The decision marks a major legal victory for the social media platform X, which had also challenged the takedown order.

Elston’s post, published in February 2024, criticized the appointment of trans-identified activist Teddy Cook to an expert position at the World Health Organization and referred to Cook using biologically based pronouns.

The post was deemed “cyber abuse” by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, who then issued a removal order to X, according to the legal advocacy group ADF International, which, in conjunction with the Human Rights Law Alliance in Australia, coordinated the legal challenge.

X initially resisted the demand, later opting to geo-block the post within Australia.

The legal challenge to the eSafety Commissioner’s ruling was filed jointly by Elston and X.

The Administrative Review Tribunal held a week-long hearing in Melbourne beginning March 31, where it reviewed whether the post constituted cyber abuse. This week, the Tribunal ruled that the Commissioner had erred in classifying Elston’s expression as abusive and formally set aside the removal order.

Read here.

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