2 weeks Ago By Paul Sakkal
Australia’s most prominent neo-Nazis have been banished from Elon Musk’s X platform in an apparent crackdown on homegrown extremism. National Socialist Network leaders Thomas Sewell and Blair Cottrell had their accounts suspended on Tuesday, two days after Australian white supremacists were thriving on the platform and generating millions of views on posts often vilifying minority groups and calling for a white Australia. Their profiles were shut down along with at least four other leading members of the Australian neo-Nazi movement that recently held rallies in the streets of Adelaide, where 16 members were arrested, and on the steps of Victorian Parliament where they held up a banner reading “JEWS HATE FREEDOM”.
It is not yet clear if Australian agencies sought the bans, which come at a time of and ASIO’s warnings about a probable terror attack driven by mixes of “twisted” ideologies – including anti-government conspiracy theories, racism, Islamist extremism and neo-Nazism – blending with social media-fuelled personal grievance. The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who along with the Coalition raised the alarm about the neo-Nazi rise in , has been contacted for comment, as has the office of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Joel Davis, an Australian neo-Nazi whose account was not suspended, reacted with fury to the news on Tuesday, while other far-right accounts complained about the apparent clamp instituted by Musk’s anti-censorship platform.
“These two men and several other nationalists were all censored off X this evening in a clear co-ordinated mass banning most likely requested by some department of the Australian government,” he wrote on X. “No doubt you don’t agree with many of our views, but these are political figures of serious notoriety in Australia. Unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t have the right to sabotage the voice of its own citizens on ideological grounds.
” White supremacists and leaders of the National Socialist Network were previously banned or censored on X before returning as the platform reduced moderation, removed all staff in Australia and reinstated thousands of banned accounts. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has announced at the same time as Labor sought to clamp down on social media, including a ban on teens under 16 using certain sites. Deakin University associate professor Josh Roose, who studies political violence, said the removal of a host of accounts suggested a move with the involvement of the Australian government, which earlier this week announced sanctions on Terrorgram, an online network that uses encrypted platforms to share white supremacist content.
“It looks like the Australian government is becoming more agile and active in targeting the extremist right online,” Roose said, adding that neo-Nazis had used X to greatly increase their reach by commenting on the posts of news outlets, politicians and journalists. “It’s a significant development that suggests a co-ordinated effort likely with the Australian government on board.” “[The extreme right] have really enjoyed this platform and the wider audience it has allowed them to build.
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