Australia’s online safety regulator has rejected assertions from a key US Republican congressman that she is a “zealot for global takedowns”, as the eSafety commissioner faced questions from the Australian parliament on a Guardian investigation into Roblox.
Julie Inman Grant was asked by US Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, Jim Jordan, to speak before the committee last month.
The committee produced a report in June arguing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (Garm), which was shut down in August 2024, had colluded with advertisers and foreign regulators. The committee alleged the group colluded to make demands on then-Twitter about what content it should moderate on its platform.
The committee had turned its attention to Inman Grant, after emails from her to the organisation showed the commissioner saying Garm was “helping to hold the platforms to account”.
In a letter from Jordan to Inman Grant published last month, he requested Inman Grant be interviewed by the committee, stating “your expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s [Online Safety Act]... directly threatens American speech”. Jordan referenced eSafety’s failed attempt to have X remove tweets of footage of the 2024 church stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Jordan said of Inman Grant: “As a primary enforcer of Australia’s [Online Safety Act] 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.
“This information will inform the committee’s legislative reforms aimed, in part, at ensuring that foreign censors cannot silence protected American speech.”
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Inman Grant told Senate estimates on Tuesday evening she was sending a letter to Jordan, but did not confirm whether she would appear before the committee.
“What I am zealous about is protecting children online but I will be going back to him with a letter, explaining a few things,” she said.
Inman Grant said she wrote in the letter that Australians expect companies providing services into Australia to abide by Australian laws. She added that since the church stabbing case that X challenged in the court and eSafety ended up dropping, eSafety had accepted geoblocking Australian users from seeing the posts as compliance with Australian law.
“So the conclusion is nothing that we do here with the Online Safety Act affects anything that an American platform will serve to Americans,” she said. “So no, it does not impinge upon Americans’ freedom of speech.”
Inman Grant said she would not make her letter public until Jordan had seen it, noting the congressman’s letter made its way to Sky News at the same time it was sent to her.
“I think out of respect for him – when he sent me his letter, he sent it concurrently, it appears to Sky News – I prefer to send it official to official,” Inman Grant said.
Inman Grant is not compelled to appear before the House judiciary committee. Inman Grant had been given until 2 December to respond.
eSafety grilled on Guardian Australia Roblox investigation
Independent senator David Pocock asked Inman Grant about Guardian Australia reporter Sarah Martin’s investigation into Roblox and the bullying and violence children may experience on the platform.
Pocock asked about Roblox’s exclusion from the under-16s social media ban – due to come in next week – and whether Roblox was a gaming platform or a social interactions platform.
Inman Grant detailed the changes Roblox had made using age assurance to prevent children and adults from interacting with each other.
eSafety officials said Roblox’s primary purpose is gaming – which is one of the exemptions from the ban – but as services evolve and more social features are added, the platforms must continually assess whether they might be covered.
Pocock asked if eSafety was conducting similar experiments to those in the Guardian investigation to assess Roblox features.
Inman Grant said eSafety was assessing if it had the legal ability to set up accounts for its own testing.
“We look at a range of factors in terms of determining what we consider to be the relative risk, experts, things like that … [On the weekend] I’m often reading 404 Media or the Guardian or whatever it is, or Wired and sending [my team] some research to look at,” she said.
“We’re doing some of our own testing. And we’re using our transparency powers, but we’re also just taking complaints in from the general public through our complaints schemes every day.”
