Australia’s internet regulator says X refused to take down a video of a high-profile stabbing in Sydney that was watched by Axel Rudakubana just before he murdered three young girls in Southport.
The body, eSafety, said it “noted with great sadness” that Rudakubana viewed the violent footage of the attempted murder of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
It said other major tech firms complied with its request to take the video down, but X – owned by Elon Musk – only blocked it in Australia, meaning Rudakubana was able to view it minutes before leaving his home to carry out his deadly attack.
The 18-year-old has been sentenced to a minimum of 52 years for the murders.
X has been contacted for comment.
Police officers who investigated last July’s Southport murders – which sparked riots across England – discovered a number of devices during a search of the 18-year-old’s home in Banks, Lancashire.
They have said it could take years to uncover what was in Rudakubana’s internet browsing history, which he deleted before he left the house to carry out his attack.
A search on X for the stabbing of the bishop was the only thing that remained, police have said.
He was attacked in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley in April 2024 – an incident deemed an act of terror by the police.
The attack on the bishop during mass at the The Good Shepherd Church sparked unrest in the Australian city.

Recent findings show bigmouth buffalo fish have perplexingly long lives and appear to get healthier as they age. But scientists are worried their population is about to crash.

If you ever find yourself on the shores of Minnesota’s Rice Lake in May time, you may be able to spot swarms of large fish bodies mingling among the wild rice plants in water barely a few feet deep.
These are bigmouth buffalo fish, and they are the world’s longest-lived freshwater fish. Some live for over 100 years.
Every year, these huge fish – which can weigh more than 50lb (23kg) – traverse through Rice River to spawn and reproduce in the lake. But the regularity of this spawning belies a hidden conservation concern: for more than six decades now, no new generations of young fish here have made it to adulthood.

Bigmouth buffalo have remained understudied for decades. In the last few years, however, scientists have begun to realise how unique these huge and incredibly long-lived fish truly are – even as they also uncover how imperilled they may be.

Filming the BBC’s landmark series Asia took its crew on a four-year-long odyssey from the open ocean to the “roof of the world”.

From frozen mountains to parched deserts, and lush tropical rainforest to vast grassland steppes – Asia is Earth’s largest continent and home to an incredible array of environments.
Perhaps because of that sheer size and variety, until last year the BBC had never devoted a wildlife series entirely to it. The vastness, the crowded megacities and the extreme diversity of environments makes it harder to encapsule in a handful of episodes.
The Natural History Unit’s landmark series Asia took four years to make. “Many parts of Asia are extremely remote, largely unknown, or frequently off-limits,” producer Matthew Wright says. “Its wildlife is less well-studied than that of Africa and the Americas, so we had fewer leads to go on when we started our research.”
“We started by scouring scientific papers, books, websites and social media looking for stories. We spoke to colleagues, conservationists and tour guides too. Once running orders were drawn up, we spent two years and over 2,500 days filming,” said Wright.