Right now in Australia, a seminal free-speech battle is being fought that proves censorship regimes are no longer constrained by geography. At the heart of this case is Billboard Chris, a Canadian father who publicly advocates against gender ideology.
Billboard Chris (real name Chris Elston) has gained international attention for wearing a sandwich board, stating ‘Children cannot consent to puberty blockers’, and striking up conversations with members of the public about trans ideology. Elston has now been forced to travel to Australia to defend his right to post what he likes and have it be seen by his Australian followers on the American-owned social-media platform, X.
Last February, Elston shared an article from the Daily Mail on X about the appointment of Australian trans activist Teddy Cook to a World Health Organisation ‘panel of experts’ on transgender policy. Along with posting the article, titled ‘Kinky secrets of UN trans expert REVEALED’, Elston criticised Cook’s agenda and supposed expertise. The post drew a complaint from Cook to Australia’s ‘eSafety commissioner’, which demanded its removal. While X initially resisted, it eventually ‘geoblocked’ the content in Australia – so Australians, at least, couldn’t see it. Now, a legal battle for free speech is being waged Down Under, with both X and Chris challenging the censorship order. With the support of ADF International and the Australian Human Rights Law Alliance, Elston is arguing that the eSafety commissioner violated his right to peacefully share his beliefs.
Elston landed in Australia last week, ahead of his five-day hearing this week. To make matters worse, when he ventured out on to the streets of Brisbane with his trademark billboard, intending to speak with the public, he was forcibly moved on by police and almost arrested.
When the brunt force of the state’s silencing power comes crashing down like this, it’s worth paying attention. This is bigger than one X post or one man – it is about whether a government should be allowed to suppress discussion about one of the most critical issues of our time.
The eSafety commission was established in 2015 and then expanded under Australia’s Online Safety Act in 2021. It is tasked with scrubbing the Australian web of anything that might cause ‘harm’ or ‘offence’. That means issuing take-down orders, backed by significant civil penalties, to any digital platforms hosting offending content – even those based outside of Australia. While Elston is not Australian and was not tweeting from Australia, his post was censored on grounds that it was ‘cyber-abuse material targeted at an Australian adult’ – the adult in question being Cook.
Notably, the Australian government has indicated plans to further expand the Online Safety Act. Communications minister Michelle Rowland recently tabled a statutory review, which described the eSafety commission as ‘world-leading’ and recommended lowering the threshold for forcing platforms to censor content and reducing the waiting time for issuing take-down orders.
It’s no mystery why the woke Australian authorities are desperate to censor gender-critical voices. Trans ideology can only survive through censorship. While the rest of the world is waking up to the evils of gender extremism, an Australian court recently ruled that ‘sex is not confined to being a biological concept’. This was the now-infamous Tickle vs Giggle case, in which entrepreneur Sall Grover’s women-only app was forced to accept a male user. Clearly, the Australian ruling classes are clinging on to this deluded ideology until the very end.
But this is not just about the transgender issue. We know that once a government starts censoring views it doesn’t like, there is no telling where it will draw the line. The outcome of Elston’s case will set a key precedent for free speech in every issue, everywhere. If the Australian authorities can censor him – then ultimately no citizen, anywhere, is safe from its authoritarian overreach.
Billboard Chris is standing up for far more than his own free-speech rights here. He is defending the universal right to speak the truth, one tweet at a time.
Robert Clarke is a barrister and director of advocacy for ADF International, which is supporting the legal defence of Billboard Chris in Australia.
