The Australian government has instructed a news outlet to remove or heavily censor an article that “offended” a trans-identified male living in the country.
Reduxx, an independent media project dedicated to exposing gender ideology, received a notice from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner on April 28. The notice alerted them to a complaint made about an article they published on April 1.
The article, “Thousands of Complaints Filed After Trans YouTuber Allowed To Play On Women’s Football League, Reportedly Injured Players,” revealed the identity of a transgender male who had been the subject of mass complaint after reportedly injuring female players at a football game while playing on the women’s team.
Reduxx first covered the story after details about the incident were initially reported by Daily Mail Australia. The Daily Mail included pixelated photos to obscure the transgender player’s identity. However, Reduxx traced the photos back to the player’s social media and identified the individual as Riley Dennis.
Dennis is a trans activist and former YouTuber best known for having condemned lesbians as “transphobic” for not dating trans-identified males.
Despite this information being easily accessible, a formal complaint has been filed with the eSafety Commissioner in an effort to remove Reduxx’s reporting.
The eSafety Commissioner is an arm of the Australian government responsible for “handling complaints about cyber abuse material concerning Australian adults and ensuring the rapid removal of such material.”
In their request, the Commissioner asked Reduxx to remove all identifying information about Dennis from their article, stating that they were “escalating this complaint… on the basis that the material may incite harm towards the targeted individual.”
Despite Reduxx not being located in Australia, the outlet was instructed by the Australian government to remove all images of Dennis, including all references to the player’s name, soccer club and social media handles.
In addition, the Commissioner also asked that allegations suggesting Dennis had injured female players be removed, declaring them “false” despite over 12,000 complaints having been filed on the incident.
In an email to the outlet sent today, the eSafety Commissioner outlined their reasons for the removal request. These reasons included that “the article misgenders Riley as a ‘man’ which is considered offensive,” and that Dennis “is under significant distress and has indicated that she fears for her safety.”
In addition to the email from the Commissioner, Reduxx was sent an additional notice from Twitter’s legal department.
Twitter stated that the original Reduxx article was now being withheld in Australia at the instruction of the eSafety Commissioner, noting that it “violates the laws of Australia.” The message from Twitter does not specify which Australian laws Reduxx has violated.
Speaking to The Publica, Reduxx EIC Anna Slatz expressed amusement over the notice.
“What are they going to do? Throw a boomerang at me? I am in Canada.” Slatz said. “Jokes aside, it is concerning that the government of Australia apparently has a dedicated arm to policing mean speech on the internet on a global scale. After I received the email, I was so incredulous that I looked up the Commissioner to make sure it was real, and ended up spending an hour in total awe of the fact they actually had an ‘adult cyber abuse’ division.”
Slatz says Reduxx promptly responded to the eSafety Commissioner and requested more details on the potential consequences of non-action, but has not yet received a response.
“While I understand Twitter has to comply with local laws, I can’t help but be a bit disappointed that they censored the article in Australia. They stated it was because we had violated Australian law. I had no idea misgendering was illegal in Australia, and it simply reaffirms my desire to never go there.”
Despite the notices sent her way, Slatz says Reduxx will not be taking any censorious action. She also issued a statement on social media, noting that the article will stay as it is.
“After a comprehensive analysis of the compelling arguments presented by the eSafety Commissioner, including that it was “offensive” to have called Riley Dennis a “man,” Reduxx has decided to leave the article up without alteration.”
