A prominent Republican politician has called on Australia’s eSafety commissioner to front the US Congress for questioning, accusing her of being a “zealot” who is “threatening American free speech”.
Jordan highlighted the eSafety commissioner’s attempt to force billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, to takedown videos of a Sydney church stabbing and claimed Inman Grant had “colluded with pro-censorship entities in the United States”.
Julie Inman Grant. eSafety Commissioner, during a Senate estimates hearing at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday 30 May 2024. fedpol Photo: Alex Ellinghausen (The Sydney Morning Herald)
“As the Australian eSafety Commissioner, you are the official primarily responsible for enforcing Australia’s Online Safety Act (OSA), which imposes obligations on American companies and threatens speech of American citizens,” Jordan wrote.
“In addition, you have been working with US-based organisations and universities to facilitate and encourage cooperation with foreign censorship regimes, including the OSA.
“As such, we respectfully request your testimony at a transcribed interview to inform the Committee’s oversight.
“Your expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s OSA—including your claim of extraterritorial jurisdiction to censor speech outside of Australia—directly threatens American speech.”
The accusation of collusion was sparked by a “non-public” keynote speech Inman Grant made and roundtable discussion at prestigious US university Stanford in September, and work with Stanford’s Social Media Lab on implementing and evaluating social media laws.
The US-born Inman Grant began her five-year term in 2022, after spending 17 years at Microsoft following a start in the US Congress and the non-profit sector in Washington, DC.
Representative Jim Jordan questions US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, at the Capitol, Monday, July 22, 2024 in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Among other powers, Australia’s Online Safety Act allows eSafety to require internet service providers to block access to material showing “abhorrent violent conduct such as terrorist acts”.
Jordan gave Inman Grant until 10am on December 2 (2am on December 3 AEDT) to respond to the request.
“As a primary enforcer of Australia’s OSA and noted zealot for global takedowns, you are uniquely positioned to provide information about the law’s free speech implications—both in the US and abroad,” Jordan wrote.
Musk’s social media platform, X, refused to take down the videos. (AP)
“This information will inform the Committee’s legislative reforms aimed, in part, at ensuring that foreign censors cannot silence protected American speech.”
An eSafety spokesperson told The Sydney Morning Herald she was considering whether to agree to the request “in the context of eSafety’s current priorities”.
“It is important to remember why the eSafety Commissioner was established in 2015 as an independent regulator – to protect Australians, especially children, from a range of online harms including sexual abuse and exploitation, deepfake image-based abuse, extreme violence and terrorist propaganda, cyberbullying and exposure to age-inappropriate material including pornography, self-harm and suicide promotion,” the spokesperson said.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant during an address to the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Tuesday 24 June 2025. fedpol Photo: Alex Ellinghausen (Alex Ellinghausen)
“The commissioner is accountable to Australia’s Minister for Communications and the Australian Parliament.”
The commissioner launched Federal Court proceedings last year against X after clips of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being stabbed during a live-streamed sermon on April 15 remained on the platform for Australian users to see.
The commissioner dropped the case in June last year, saying her key concern throughout was the ease by which children were able to access the “extremely violent” stabbing video on X. She’d decided dropping the case was “likely to achieve the most positive outcome”.Assyrian Orthodox Bishop Mari Mari Emmanuel was stabbed on Monday night in what’s being referred to as a Terrorist attack by the NSW Government. (CGSC)
When eSafety directed platforms to remove footage of the shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk, the stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska on a train and the beheading of hotel manager Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah in September, it “confirmed geoblocking would be sufficient to comply”.
“eSafety recognises the importance of news reporting and public commentary on current events – especially such tragic, disturbing ones as these – and has no role regulating opinion, commentary or political speech,” the agency said in an October press release.
“eSafety does, however, have a role in enforcing Australia’s Online Safety Act to keep Australian citizens safe from online harm, especially children. That includes preventing accidental, inadvertent or unnecessary exposure to harmful violent online imagery of real killings where that material has been assessed RC.
“eSafety understands many Australians were deeply concerned their children had been served this material direct to their feeds without warning or any protective filters.”
